Tissium SA close a series D funding round, raising $54 million from investors both new – such as Mérieux Développement SAS– and long-term, including Cathay Capital Co. Ltd., Crédit Mutuel Innovation SAS and original investors, Sofinnova Partners SAS. “This capital raise will finance the commercial launch of the first adhesives in the U.S. for peripheral nerve reconstruction and hernia therapy,” Christophe Bancel, co-founder and CEO of Tissium, told BioWorld.

Renal denervation, the comeback kid

Renal denervation (RDN) was described as the “comeback kid” at the recent EuroPCR conference in Paris where participants argued that following the success seen in several sham-controlled clinical trials, there is now no doubt about the safety and the efficacy of the technology as a treatment for hypertension. The device-based procedure should now be used as a therapy option to reduce high blood pressure in patients, delegates heard.

UK reports funding to reboot ailing clinical trial system

The U.K. government has reported £121 million (US$148 million) in funding to reboot the commercial clinical trials system after a sharp decline saw the number of industry sponsored studies falling by 44% from 2017 – 2021. That took an estimated £930 million out of the National Health Service (NHS) over the five year period, in reduced income from pharma companies and in the opportunity cost of having to provide standard of care for patients who otherwise would have had their medication provided as part of a clinical trial. “There is significant work to do,” said health minister Steve Barclay in response to an independent review into commercial trials published on May 25 that points to eight problem areas that are deterring industry sponsors from running trials in the U.K. “The government welcomes all the recommendations from this review, in principle,” Barclay said.  

Study shows Exact benefit of early cancer diagnosis

Exact Sciences Corp.’s long-term analysis of results from the Detecting cancers Earlier Through Elective mutation-based blood Collection and Testing study found that all patients diagnosed and treated for stage I or II cancers identified through its blood-based multi-cancer early diagnosis test remained cancer-free more than four years after diagnosis. Half of all the participants with cancer detected remained alive at four years, notable because most of the detected cancers had no recommended screening tests or standards.

Brain gene and cell strategies could ‘open the safe’ in neurodegenerative disorders

One of the challenges in designing genetic and cellular strategies is getting the therapy to the right place. This is even more complicated when it comes to the nervous system. The brain is a complex organ that contains the most differentiated and inaccessible cells in human biology. It is an impassable safe, protected by the blood-brain barrier. “AAVs are widely being tested as viral vectors for gene therapy, and they are promising tools for therapeutic gene delivery to the brain. However, the blood-brain barrier is a huge obstacle in trying to deliver AAVs to the brain. AAVs can be injected directly, but this approach is associated with various challenges. These injections are invasive. They require a skilled neurosurgeon, and there can be a risk of infection,” Bernie Owusu-Yaw, a research fellow at University College London, said.

Holiday notice

BioWorld's offices will be closed in observance of Memorial Day in the U.S. No issue will be published Monday, May 29.

Also in the news

Biological Dynamics, Invivoscribe, Neuronetics, Sera Prognostics, Vielight