Companies and investors, well aware of the natural up and down fluctuations of the market, keep expecting the current downturn to end. They’ve been expecting it to begin an upturn for the past two years. During a Feb. 26 session on venture capital trends at the BIO CEO & Investor Conference in New York, investors said the tough times might well extend further into 2024 than they would like.

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.

Early-stage health care companies developing breakthrough medical technologies were given some good news recently with the launch of a new accelerator program by Israel’s Arc Innovation aimed at giving startups a $250,000 cash injection. With a $10 million investment from Ilex Medical Ltd., the initiative is looking to empower early-stage companies by providing financial backing, expert guidance and a support network.

Vessi Medical Ltd. recently closed a series A financing round at $16.5 million for the advancement of its cryotherapy technology to treat non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). Vessi believes that its minimally invasive device can provide a therapeutic alternative to a transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT) procedure, the current first line therapy to treat the disease.

Cagent Vascular Inc. secured more than $30 million in a series C fundraising round to increase availability of its Serranator PTA serration balloon catheters, which scores the endoluminal surface of arteries to enable greater expansion of obstructed vessels. A recent study demonstrated that Serranator also dramatically reduced elastic recoil, which could improve results of angioplasty in individuals with peripheral artery disease (PAD).