Phagenesis Ltd. raised $42 million in a series D financing round for its neurostimulation therapy, Phagenyx, which treats swallowing dysfunction. The funds will primarily support commercialization of the device in the U.S. where there is a huge unmet clinical need in dysphagia treatment, Reinhard Krickl, CEO of Phagenesis, told BioWorld.

Neurocode USA Inc. added Alzpath Dx, a blood test for Alzheimer’s disease screening, to its lab developed tests, making it the first available for commercial use in the U.S. The move stands to make screening for the neurodegenerative disease much more accessible, as recent study results indicate Alzpath’s accuracy rivals PET scans and cerebrospinal fluid tests, the current gold standards, in detecting the signature biomarkers of the disease.

In a sign that Royal Philips NV is not letting the problems in its business in the U.S. stop its innovation, the company has launched the Azurion neuro biplane, a new image guided therapy system for patients suffering from stroke and other neurovascular diseases. It also teamed up with Syntheticmr AB and launched Smart Quant Neuro 3D, an AI imaging tool which will help health care professionals diagnose and assess brain disorders like multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury and dementia.

Mainstay Medical Holdings plc raised $125 million in equity financing which it will use to conduct clinical trials and continue the commercial roll out of its Reactiv8 neurostimulation therapy that treats chronic lower back pain.

With the number of people with dementia in Australia expected to nearly double by 2054, the federal government is funding a new AU$50 million (US$32.76 million) biomedical and med-tech incubator program to develop new therapies, medical devices and digital health technologies to address dementia and cognitive decline.

A new cutting-edge blood-based biomarker test developed by researchers at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology can detect early Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), with accuracy rates surpassing 96% and 87% respectively, and could be a game changer in detecting and treading early AD.

South Korea’s MFDS gave regulatory clearance to SK Inc. C&C’s artificial intelligence (AI) solution to diagnose cerebral infarction called Medical Insight+ Brain Infarct on Feb. 22, as a class III device.

Shionogi & Co. Ltd. is partnering with Fronteo Inc. to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-based diagnostic tools to diagnose mental and neurological disorders more accurately.

New York-based Viewmind Inc. has applied for patent protection of methods and systems for detecting neurological disorders and/or measuring, fine-motor skills, processing speed, decision making, and cognitive processes by measuring eye movements, oculomotor features and pupil behavior.

Elemind Technologies Inc. may not (yet) be telepathic, but the new company certainly read the mood of investors well as it secured $12 million in seed funding before emerging from stealth this week. While the product has yet to be fully revealed, the company is developing a wearable neurotechnology platform that uses artificial intelligence to read and guide brainwaves using tailored sound stimulation.