Sonio SAS raised just over $5 million in its seed round to develop artificial intelligence (AI) software allowing health care professionals to determine the most appropriate pregnancy care. Its Sonio Diagnostic software delivers decision support for fetal ultrasound used in antenatal diagnostics.

Two Israeli companies aiming to improve in vitro fertilization (IVF) success rates received good news recently, with Aivf Ltd. hauling in $25 million in a series A round for Ema, its IVF software platform, and Fairtility Ltd. gaining CE mark for its CHLOE EQ embryo quality decision-support tool.

Fairtility Ltd.’s artificial intelligence (AI)-trained embryo classification system offers patients struggling with infertility and their physicians a better way to maximize the likelihood of implantation following in vitro fertilization (IVF) without the risk of a multiple pregnancy, a study in the Nature portfolio journal Scientific Reports found.

Truscreen Group Ltd. completed its largest clinical trial to date that showed its cervical cancer screening device surpassed liquid-based cytology (LBC) screening in 15,651 women across 64 hospitals in nine provinces in China over three years.

PARIS – Ziwig SAS has developed the Endotest saliva test, for quickly detecting endometriosis. François Golfier, head of the gynecology-obstetrics department at Angers University Hospital and chairman of the endometriosis committee for the National College of French Gynecologists and Obstetricians, claims this new generation of in vitro diagnostic medical devices is going to be a game-changer “as it finally allows this chronic debilitating disease to be detected sooner and within the space of just a few days.”

The Cooper Companies Inc. plans to acquire the entirety of Cook Medical Inc.’s reproductive health business in this fiscal quarter for $675 million at closing plus $200 million paid in four $50 million annual installments. The acquisition will expand Cooper’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region. The Cook deal will also accelerate Cooper’s labor and delivery medical device efforts by adding 115 people sales, marketing, education and support staff globally.

San Francisco-based startup Mirvie Inc. has released data demonstrating how its RNA platform technology can predict preterm birth. The research, presented at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine 42nd Annual Pregnancy Meeting (SMFM 2022), showed the company’s test predicted the condition months before symptoms occurred and identified biological pathways that drive changes in pregnancy.

TORONTO – Hyivy Health Inc. has secured CA$1.1 million (US$888,000) in pre-seed funding to manufacture, test and obtain medical device approval for a women’s pelvic rehabilitation platform and to explore its use for relieving pelvic pain during clinical trials this summer.

A panel of leaders in women’s health at the 2022 edition of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference addressed the challenges and benefits of digital health and new apps in enabling women to be the “chief medical officers” of their families’ health and to take the necessary steps to improve their own. The panel included moderator Lynne Chou O’Keefe, founder and managing partner of Define Ventures; Apple Inc.’s Vice President of Health Sumbul Ahmad Desai; Veronica Gillispie-Bell, assistant professor, Ochsner Health System; Found CEO Sarah Jones Simmer; Michelle Williams, dean of faculty at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; and Tia Inc. CEO and co-founder Carolyn Witte.

The FDA has granted a breakthrough device designation for Renovia Inc.’s digital therapeutic system Leva as a first-line treatment for chronic fecal incontinence (FI) in women. Fecal incontinence, also known as bowel leakage, is a progressive condition ranging from occasional leaks to a complete loss of bowel control. Common causes include diarrhea, constipation, and muscle or nerve damage that may be associated with aging or giving birth.