Theken Companies LLC reported the acquisition of Visionair Solutions Inc. from the Cleveland Clinic, a deal that adds pulmonary therapy to its broad portfolio with Visionair’s 3D platform for the creation of silicon stents for central airway obstructions. Terms of the transaction, which has officially closed, were not disclosed.

Babson closes first tranche of commercialization fundraise for blood testing system

Babson Diagnostics Inc. has closed the first tranche of a commercialization funding round that is looking to raise $30 million to $40 million, CEO David Stein told BioWorld in an interview. The funds will be used to help commercialize the company’s Betterway blood testing ecosystem, which is a less invasive way of taking blood and requires only one-tenth of the sample volume of venipuncture without sacrificing quality or accuracy.

India takes steps to separate devices, drugs regulations

India is taking steps to separate how it regulates medical devices and pharmaceuticals, as it works to reduce its dependency on imports of devices and turn itself into a global hub for med tech innovation and manufacturing. India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare want to move forward with its New Drugs, Medical Devices and Cosmetics Bill 2023, which was released for comment in July 2022. A key point is the creation of clear regulatory demarcation between medical devices and drugs. All types of medical equipment and related software will, under the new rules, fall under the umbrella of medical devices. The committee that drafted and presented the new bill noted that to have a world class regulatory framework, India needs independent departments and legislation for medical devices and pharmaceuticals. The bill was originally supposed to be introduced in Parliament during its Monsoon Session, but that session closed on August 11 without the bill being presented.

Stimlabs’ allograft enables wound drainage and protection

Stimlabs LLC has taken a new view of wound healing by offering a fenestrated dehydrated complete human placental membrane allograft for chronic and acute wounds. The fenestration allows fluids to drain away from the wound, promoting faster healing, while the tissue provides protection.

Brain computer interfaces rapidly evolving for use in paralysis patients

Two papers published in Nature on Aug. 23, 2023, describe brain computer interfaces (BCI) with unprecedented capabilities for decoding brain activity into sentences, translating at speeds around half that of normal speech, and with vocabularies exceeding 1,000 words. The two BCIs achieved translation rates of between 60 to 80 words a minute, three times faster than any previous devices.“Both studies are a big leap forward towards decoding brain activity with the speed and accuracy required to restore fluent communications to people with paralysis,” said Frank Willett of the Neural Prosthetics Translational Laboratory at Stanford University, who is co-author of one of the papers.

Also in the news:

Aspen Medical Products, Co-Diagnostics, Elligo Health, GT Medical Technologies, Invitae, ICU Medical, Neuraxis, Seastar Medical, Aryastha Life Sciences, Intuition Robotics, Nevia Bio, Radiaction Medical, CLS Americas, Focalyx, DZD, Empyrean, MagCorp, MetOx, Haemonetics, Inspira, Innovimed, Marrow Access Technologies, Mainstay Medical