At first glance, the results of the CLOSURE-AF study would seem to spell doom for left atrial appendage closure devices for patients at risk of stroke, but there is some noise in the signal, including that the devices used in the study no longer represent the state of the med-tech art.

Patients and their doctors are no fans of long-term use of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) after ablation treatment for atrial fibrillation, but three-year data from the OCEAN trial suggests that some patients may not need these DOACs after all, an outcome that qualifies as a crowd-pleaser for all but the makers of these pharmaceutical agents.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s anti-CD38 antibody, mezagitamab (TAK-079), sustained kidney function up to 18 months after treatment ended in patients with primary immunoglobulin A (IgA) nephropathy, showing early signs of disease modification in a phase Ib study presented at the American Society of Nephrology’s Kidney Week 2025 in Houston.

Researchers at Triana Biomedicines Inc. presented the preclinical characterization of TRI-611, a CNS-penetrant molecular glue degrader targeting ALK in models of ALK fusion-positive non-small-cell lung cancer.

Shares of Mountain View, Calif.-based Heartflow Inc. have oscillated significantly over the past three months, but the results of a study of the company’s plaque staging system have breathed new life into the company’s shares, boosting them by 7% in Nov. 10 trading.

Kestra Medical Inc. seems to have put itself in a position to take a bite out of the market for wearable defibrillators with the results of the ASSURE WCD study, which enrolled more than 21,600 patients. The study, whose results were reported on at the American Heart Association annual meeting in New Orleans, demonstrated that Kestra’s unit delivered an inappropriate shock rate of only 0.0065 per patient per month, an outcome that analysts at Wells Fargo said will allow Kestra to close the gap on competitors such as Zoll Medical.

Researchers from Chemdiv Inc. and Eilean Therapeutics LLC recently presented preclinical data on ZE77-0273, an AI-designed, reversible pan-EGFR inhibitor developed to address a key unmet need in the treatment of EGFR-mutant non-small-cell lung cancer.