In another real-life episode of “sponsor beware,” the owners of a clinical research facility pleaded guilty March 10 in U.S. district court to fraud charges resulting from their conduct of two clinical trials for potential asthma drugs.

Three public health experts have voiced concerns that the uncertainties sparked by the Trump administration’s moves to reduce federal spending could limit the U.S. CDC’s ability to track and respond to infectious disease outbreaks and will undermine the public health support system in the U.S.

Insilico Medicine founder and CEO Alex Zhavoronkov told BioWorld that he tries to spend as much time as possible in China, because that's where the artificial intelligence (AI) drug development company conducts synthesis and tests for early stage discovery. “And nowadays, not a day goes by without somebody launching an AI drug discovery company,” he said, noting that Chinese AI company Deepseek could be a huge disrupter.

A new multi-omics approach to unpicking how noncoding gene variants influence the development of common chronic diseases has identified tens of thousands of instances where variants have an impact on gene expression levels and gene splicing, the post-transcriptional modification that allows one gene to code for multiple proteins.

Royal Phillips NV opted to withdraw the Tack endovascular repair device only six years after the U.S. FDA’s approved it. Tack is designed to repair vascular dissection caused by angioplasty. The associated recall lists 20 injuries and no fatalities, but the device design might be a culprit in forcing the withdrawal of the Tack.

As U.S. regulatory uncertainty swirls around the vaccine space and health care in general, Vaxcyte Inc. stands poised for a readout of phase II infant data by the end of this quarter with VAX-24, the 24-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV). The San Carlos, Calif.-based firm will offer top-line safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity data, to be followed by top-line data with the booster dose by the end of this year.

The Apple Watch may be able to alert wearers to heart palpitations, but Google LLC’s Pixel Watch 3 can now detect when a user’s heart stops – and call emergency services. The pulse detection featured received clearance from the U.S. FDA on Feb. 26 and Google plans to make it available on its Pixel Watch 3 starting in March. Pulse detection is already available for watches sold in the U.K. and EU.

To increase diagnosis across Australia, the partnership will see Compumedics Ltd. of Melbourne supply its Somfit devices and electrodes to Philips’ pharmacy-based sleep programs in pharmacies across Australia.

The map of cystic fibrosis (CF) research is being redrawn in the U.K. as improvements in treatment, and in particular the introduction of CF modulator drugs, mean people with the rare inherited disease are living much longer.

The map of cystic fibrosis (CF) research is being redrawn in the U.K. as improvements in treatment, and in particular the introduction of CF modulator drugs, mean people with the rare inherited disease are living much longer.