Heart failure is a leading cause of disability and death in the U.S., but many cases are diagnosed late due to limited access to echocardiography, the primary method of detecting the condition. To address that need, the U.S. FDA has granted breakthrough device designation to Eko Devices Inc., of Berkeley, Calif., for an electrocardiogram (ECG)-based algorithm that could serve as an easily accessible screening tool for heart failure during routine physical exams.
PARIS – A team of medical researchers and engineers from the Gustave Roussy Institute, in Villejuif, France, and Paris-Sud University recently developed an artificial intelligence system called Resolved2, designed to assess prospective cancer drugs. As Loïc Verlingue, lead cancer specialist on the data science team at the Gustave Roussy Institute, explained to BioWorld MedTech, “this AI is intended to predict efficiently whether a cancer treatment molecule will achieve authorization or not within six years of pharmacological data and phase I clinical trials.”
Irving, Texas-based Caris Life Sciences Inc. has launched an AI-based genomic profiling test to better characterize cases of cancer of unknown primary origin (CUP) and atypical cases and offer appropriate treatment options. Known as the MI GPS (Genomic Profiling Similarity) Score, the analysis is based on an AI analysis of a 592-gene panel of all the clinically relevant genetic biomarkers for cancer.
A pair of Israeli health tech companies, Beyond Verbal and Healthymize, plan to merge to form Newton, Mass.-based Vocalis Health. The company will be focused on developing vocal biomarkers, which track voice patterns via phone calls or smart devices to screen for various voice-indicating ailments including chronic respiratory and cardiac conditions, as well as depression. Vocalis has raised a $9 million financing led by Israeli health tech and life science venture firm Amoon to accumulate additional clinical data and enhance its voice database.
Current Health Ltd., of Edinburgh, Scotland, scooped up $11.5 million in a series A financing that was led by MMC Ventures. The funds are earmarked to scale up Current Health’s patient management platform, with the aim of preventing global illness in 1 million patients by 2021. Legal & General Group plc, a London-based financial services company, was the largest investor in the round and represents Current Health’s first corporate investor.
The Chapel Hill, N.C.-based non-profit Digital Health Institute for Transformation (DHIT) and Tanjo Inc., a machine learning company headquartered in Carrboro, N.C., will launch their Community Health Utility Grid (HUG) Initiative in North Carolina in early 2020. The collaboration aims to improve healthcare outcomes for underserved populations in the state by collecting, analyzing, and sharing individual, household and community level health data.
The U.S. FDA has granted investigational device exemption approval for the use of Personal Genome Diagnostics Inc.’s (PGDx) elio tissue complete assay in a Merck & Co. Inc. trial of a Keytruda (pembrolizumab)-based combination therapy. Specifically, the assay will be used during the trial to analyze genomic markers to direct patient enrollment and stratification.
Boston-based conglomerate GE worked to make the case for its health care business to investors at a Dec. 2 event, but Wall Street seemed underwhelmed. The company’s share price remains hovering around lows not seen since the 2008-2009 financial crisis.
HONG KONG – Neurophet Inc., a South Korean AI-based brain disease diagnostics company, has secured ₩6 billion (US$5.1 million) in series A funding. The med-tech startup produces solutions based on Segengine, the company’s own technology that automatically segments brain magnetic resonance (MR) images into 107 regions within a minute.
TORONTO – Burnaby, British Columbia-based Clarius Mobile Health Inc. has launched a second-generation series of wireless ultrasound scanners aimed at expanding its foothold in the North American and European imaging markets. More portable and powerful than its predecessors – the Clarius C3 and L7 launched in 2016 – the L15 hand-held ultrasound scanner series also may find markets in cardiac and sports medicine, as well as anesthesiology.