The U.S. FDA granted digital therapeutics company Bodyport Inc. 510(k) clearance for its heart monitoring weight scale. The digital solution includes sensors and algorithms that measure hemodynamic biomarkers to assess heart function and fluid status when patients take their daily weight. San Francisco-based Bodyport told BioWorld the platform is for heart failure (HF) patients in the U.S.
PERTH, Australia – The independent data safety monitoring board of the global REMAP-CAP COVID-19 study has uncovered a concerning safety signal in treatment arms that include an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor and an angiotensin receptor blocker in patients with severe COVID-19, and it has recommended that recruitment be suspended for those treatment arms.
Applaud Medical Inc. has secured breakthrough device designation from the FDA for its acoustic enhancer technology to be used in conjunction with ureteroscopy with laser lithotripsy (URS-LL) for the fragmentation of calcium-based urinary stones. The San Francisco-based company is currently enrolling subjects in an FDA-approved pivotal trial evaluating the technology’s safety and efficacy.
Nextkidney BV has signed a deal to buy Dialyss Pte. Ltd. as it gears up to commercialize its home hemodialysis device Neokidney. The Singapore-based startup specializes in sorbent technologies for the regeneration of dialysate and has been a collaborator of Nextkidney’s for six years. The combined team will prepare for a clinical trial in Singapore, followed by a European multicenter trial and CE mark submission in 2023. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Quanta Dialysis Technologies Ltd. raised $245 million in a series D round led by Glenview Capital. The funds will be used to accelerate commercialization of the company’s SC+ portable hemodialysis system. Novo Holdings co-led the oversubscribed and upsized financing, with support from Blackrock, Eldridge, Sands Capital, Millennium Management, Monashee Investment Management LLC, Puhua Capital, Segulah Medical and Ancora, alongside Orlando Health, an integrated delivery network.
Researchers at the Center for Inflammation Research, Queen's Medical Research Institute, University of Edinburgh reported in the May 19, 2021, issue of Science Translational Medicine that the Bcl2/w/xL targeting senolytic compound, ABT-263 (navitoclax) could reverse the age-related fibrosis characteristic of and improve kidney function.
Berlin – Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA reported that its global division, Fresenius Medical Care, and its Frenova Renal Research division have enrolled the first subjects in its new initiative to develop the largest genomic registry in the world to focus on kidney disease. At the same time, the German firm also announced that Ali Gharavi, chief of the division of nephrology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, will lead the project and provide scientific guidance as principal investigator.
With the table set for phase III data due next month from a trial testing Travere Therapeutics Inc.’s sparsentan against focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), investor appetite grows ever sharper for prospects in kidney disease.
Four days after receiving European approval, the FDA has followed suit for Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s Oxlumo (lumasiran), the first treatment for primary hyperoxaluria type 1, an ultra-rare genetic disorder that contributes to kidney stones and deposits.
DUBLIN – Health care investor Syncona Ltd. has founded a new startup, Purespring Therapeutics Ltd., to take gene therapy into the kidney. It is committing £45 million (US$59.6 million) in series A funding, which will support the build-out of the new company and take at least one program into the clinic.
