PERTH, Australia – Cardiovascular medical device company EBR Systems Inc. announced a planned AU$110 million (US$79.7 million) initial public offering (IPO) on Australia’s Securities Exchange to bring its wireless cardiac pacing system for heart failure to market. The IPO is planned for Nov. 24, 2021, and the funds raised will allow the company to complete pivotal trials for its wireless, inside-the-left-ventricle-of-the-heart pacing system called WiSE (wireless stimulation endocardially).

Vuno Inc. has received its third breakthrough device designation from South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), for its artificial intelligence (AI)-based electrocardiogram (ECG) analysis software Vuno Med DeepECG. Vuno is the first company to have three such designations to its name. “We developed Vuno Med DeepECG via long-term ECG data analysis research. With this breakthrough designation, we target expanding our market share in the medical AI industry via our bio-signal businesses. Among these is ECG data, which can help diagnose various heart diseases and has high potential,” Yeha Lee, chairman at Vuno, told BioWorld.

DUBLIN – Cardior Pharmaceuticals GmbH has closed a €64 million (US$75 million) series B round, enabling it to move its lead micro-RNA (miRNA) inhibitor program into late-stage development in heart failure. The financing sets the stage for a potential revival of a therapeutic modality that had otherwise fallen out of favor with investors and with big pharma.

Cardiac Dimensions Inc. launched the Empower trial of its Carillon mitral contour system for the treatment of heart failure patients with early-stage functional mitral regurgitation. The company expects to enroll up to 300 patients at 75 sites in the international, randomized, sham-controlled trial.

PERTH, Australia – The Australian government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) has funded a new program called the Artificial Heart Frontiers Program that aims to develop and commercialize a world-first durable total artificial heart. The Medical Research Future Fund has provided A$1 million (US$739,000) in funding that will establish the program over the next five years.

Biofourmis Inc. won a breakthrough devices nod from the FDA for its Biovitalshf solution, a digital therapeutic for patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). The company, which is pursuing the de novo pathway for the therapy, plans to launch a pivotal trial next month. Biovitalshf is intended to augment guideline-directed use of heart failure medications to manage patients in combination with traditional pharmacotherapy. The software application integrates physiological monitoring, symptoms and signs reporting, patient engagement, medication management and communications to provide clinicians with personalized and specific recommendations about their medication.

On the heels of enrolling the first patient in a pivotal trial of a ventricular restoration system to treat symptomatic heart failure patients in January, Ancora Heart Inc. closed $80 million in new financing on Monday. The startup company plans to use the new funding to speed up this pivotal trial in preparation for FDA approval of its Accucinch ventricular restoration system.

Approval could come next year for Furoscix from Scpharmaceuticals Inc. (Scpharma), a solution of the standard-of-care heart failure diuretic furosemide formulated to a neutral pH and designed for outpatient use.

Recent findings with the sodium glucose transporter-2 inhibitor Jardiance (empagliflozin) from Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH and Eli Lilly and Co. drew more attention to the cardiovascular space.