Diamedica Therapeutics Inc.’s chief medical officer, Harry Alcorn, said that “due to the complexity [of diabetic kidney disease (DKD)], there's not a clear answer” as to why such patients did less well in the company’s Redux phase II trial with DM-199 (recombinant human tissue kallikrein 1 [KLK1]). “But I wouldn't say that there wasn't a response in the DKD group,” he said, citing upside in 30% of subjects.
Mfb Fertility Inc. received CE mark approval for its Proov PdG tests, giving European women direct access to information about ovulation without a prescription. The test enables a woman to test her urine for production of sufficient progesterone to confirm ovulation and favorable conditions for conception.
TORONTO – Femtherapeutics Inc. is combining artificial intelligence-driven machine learning and 3D design to manufacture a device for relieving urinary incontinence and discomfort in women suffering pelvic organ prolapse. The custom-made pessary is intended to support vaginal tissues displaced because of the condition, replacing conventional pessaries that company officials said can result in irritation and penetrate soft tissues causing bleeding.
TORONTO – Titan Medical Inc. has received a $10 million license payment from Medtronic plc for a total of $30 million that the Irish med-tech firm has invested in robotic-assisted surgical technologies developed by Titan. Titan is pursuing gynecologic surgical applications for its Enos robotic single access surgical system, licensing it and related intellectual property to Medtronic while retaining worldwide rights to commercialize technologies for use with the Enos system.
LONDON – Alentis Therapeutics SA is now equipped to deliver initial proof of concept for its universal approach to treating fibrosis, after raising $67 million in an oversubscribed series B.
LONDON – The U.K. health technology assessment agency, NICE, has called for a halt to the use of transvaginal laser therapy in the treatment of urinary stress incontinence and vaginal atrophy, saying there is not enough evidence of long-term safety, or proof that the procedures are effective.
Interim findings that Sanofi SA's venglustat is unlikely to provide a meaningful benefit to people with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) have caused the company to halt a phase II/III study of the candidate. Testing continues in other rare diseases, but the exit could be a boon for Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.'s Jynarque (tolvaptan), its generic competitors and ascendant novel ADPKD programs still underway.
Bad regulatory news didn’t quash hopes for Travere Therapeutics Inc. with sparsentan, its dual-acting antagonist of the endothelin type A and angiotensin II type 1 receptors for focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), a disease of kidney scarring.
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.