Lianbio Co. Ltd. gained its first Asian approval in Macau for Camzyos (mavacamten/Myokardia Inc.) for treating adults with symptomatic obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (oHCM). The company in-licensed mavacamten rights from Myokardia, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Bristol Myers Squibb Co., in August 2020 for developing and commercializing mavacamten in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore. Mavacamten was granted breakthrough therapy designation in China in February 2022 for patients with oHCM.
Avertix Medical Inc. signed a definitive merger agreement with Bios Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), in a deal that will take the company public on the Nasdaq. The deal will establish the combined entity, which will continue under the Avertix name and trade as AVRT, with an estimated enterprise value of $195 million. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of the year.
Irvine Calif.-based Inari Medical Inc. reported results from what it described as the largest prospective study of interventional treatment in high-risk pulmonary embolism (PE), which found a 90% survival improvement in high-risk pulmonary embolism using the company’s Flowtriever System. Data from the FLAME (Flowtriever for Acute Massive Pulmonary Embolism) study in high-risk PE was presented at the 2023 American College of Cardiology (ACC) conference on March 5.
The combination of two sequencing techniques has unveiled features of a subpopulation of cells that could be producing plaques in atherosclerosis. This process is associated with an autoimmune component driven by CD4+ T cells, according to a study from researchers at Leiden University.
The combination of two sequencing techniques has unveiled features of a subpopulation of cells that could be producing plaques in atherosclerosis. This process is associated with an autoimmune component driven by CD4+ T cells, according to a study from researchers at Leiden University.
“I think that we can clearly say now that atherosclerosis is a very clear autoimmune component. It is a multifactorial disease, a combination of genes, and lifestyle, but also inflammation and the immune system,” Ilze Bot and Bram Slütter, associate professors at the Division of Biotherapeutics of Leiden University, told BioWorld.
New research published in BMJ Open claims there are inconsistencies in Amgen Inc.’s phase III Fourier study for cholesterol lowering. Cardiac deaths were numerically higher in those taking the PCSK9 inhibitor Repatha (evolocumab) combined with a statin than those in the placebo group, the research noted.
A new acute coronary syndrome detection system developed by Neuome Peptides Pte. Ltd.’s aims to make tests for the frequently lethal condition faster, more precise and less invasive. Neuome’s Truheart is a point-of-care assay for cardiovascular disease that is used in the company’s established Instadetect assay development platform. The assay measures the biomarkers troponins I and T and myoglobin.
The move away from in-clinic testing continues, with another company offering a convenient, at-home sensor that gathers critical health information without requiring any change on the part of the patient, which may provide even more accurate, real-world data on patient health than the tests they replace.
The ability to inexpensively predict events such as stroke and heart attack is something of a holy grail for cardiologists, and a new study presented at this year’s annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North American (RSNA) provides just that capability. A study of an algorithm developed to examine a single chest X-ray suggests that the data generated by the algorithm can be as effective in establishing the patient’s risk of these events as a standard approach that relies on information that isn’t always readily available to the clinician.
