LONDON – Technology commercialization specialist Eurekare SA has arrived on the scene after raising a $60 million series A, with which it plans to seed fund the formation of microbiome and synthetic biology startups and invest in later-stage rounds of companies specializing in those two fields.

PERTH, Australia – The launch of Australia’s first medical device development and manufacturing facility in Melbourne is set to fast-track new treatments for people with conditions such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, hearing loss, stroke and diabetes.

PERTH, Australia – Implicit Bioscience Ltd.’s lead candidate, IC-14, is the first anti-CD14 monoclonal antibody (MAb) to progress to the clinic as it enters a phase II trial in the U.S. in COVID-19 patients. 

Medtronic plc obtained the CE mark for its Sensight directional lead system for deep brain stimulation (DBS) for movement disorders and epilepsy, which is designed to be used with the company’s Percept PC DBS device. Percept received U.S. FDA clearance in June 2020 and CE mark in January 2020.

LONDON – New research shows it is possible to diagnose Parkinson’s disease by mass spectrometry analysis of sebum samples taken with a simple skin swab, and that the same technique has potential to be used for diagnosing COVID-19. In a paper published in Nature Communications on March 11, 2021, scientists and clinicians in the U.K. and the Netherlands describe using high resolution mass spectrometry to profile the chemical signature of lipids and other biomarkers in sebum from Parkinson’s patients and show how these exhibit subtle but fundamental changes as the disease progresses.

Boston Scientific Corp. has received a thumbs up from the U.S. FDA for its fourth-generation Vercise Genus deep brain stimulation (DBS) system. The neuromodulation device, which comes in both rechargeable and nonrechargeable versions, is intended to treat the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Vercise Genus is indicated for use in the bilateral stimulation of subthalamic nucleus as an adjunctive therapy in alleviating some of the symptoms of moderate to advanced lepodova-responsive Parkinson’s disease that are not adequately controlled by medication. It also has indications for bilateral stimulation of the globus pallidus.

Medtronic plc reported that the first patient has been enrolled in the Adaptive DBS Algorithm for Personalized Therapy in Parkinson's Disease (ADAPT-PD) study its trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of adaptive deep brain stimulation (aDBS) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). This type of stimulation is an investigational feature of the Percept PC device that could be enabled if approved.

Shares of Voyager Therapeutics Inc. and its partner, Neurocrine Biosciences Inc., fell in early trading Dec. 23 after Voyager announced an FDA clinical hold on the phase II Restore-1 trial of VY-AADC, an adeno-associated virus-based gene therapy Neurocrine is developing as NBIb-1817 for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. The trial had been paused since at least November as its data safety monitoring board reviewed MRI abnormalities in some study participants.

Prevail Therapeutics Inc. won't be prevailing on its own. Eli Lilly and Co. is acquiring the gene therapy company for $880 million up front plus an earn-out of up to $160 million if Lilly can gain regulatory approval for at least one of Prevail's drugs.