PERTH, Australia – Startup Inventia Life Science Pty. Ltd. has received two major investments from the Australian government to accelerate the development of a robotic device that prints a patient’s own skin cells directly onto a burn or wound. Named Ligō from the Latin “to bind,” the device could revolutionize the way surgeons approach wound repair.

The FDA’s weekly town hall on testing for the COVID-19 pandemic included the usual range of concerns about test performance, but concerns regarding swabs and sample sites continue to mount. The predicament has led to the announcement that the FDA along with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will hold a May 15 town hall regarding swabs, with a particular interest in swabs produced via additive manufacturing.

The U.S. FDA has granted emergency use authorization (EUA) to New Haven, Conn., startup Vent Multiplexor LLC for its emergency rescue co-ventilation device. Developed in collaboration with Yale New Haven Hospital, the Vent Multiplexor enables individualized mechanical ventilation of two adults on a single ventilator – lessening demand for more critical care machines in the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.

As health care workers face critical shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) to deal with the COVID-19 crisis, 3D printing companies, medical device manufacturers and other organizations are stepping up to produce face shields, ventilators and other needed supplies. For its part, Rehovot, Israel-based Stratasys Ltd. has assembled a coalition of more than 150 companies and universities to produce 3D-printed visors and clear plastic face shields. The coalition aims to produce up to 16,000 face shields per week by the end of next week.

TORONTO – Newpro3D Inc., of North Vancouver, British Columbia, is making its ultra-fast 3D printing technology available to Düsseldorf, Germany-based Henkel AG & Co. KGaA to help it expand into production scale, additive manufacturing of medical devices. Newpro3D’s digital light processing (DLP) system enables its customers to manufacture hard and soft anatomical models used in surgical planning “at record speeds,” said Newpro3D COO Gabriel Castanon, eliminating the slow mechanical processes in more conventional 3D printing techniques.

PERTH, Australia – After more than three years of consultations, Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) finally has unveiled a new regulatory framework for custom-made and 3D-printed devices that aligns with international standards.

TORONTO – Vancouver, British Columbia-based Aspect Biosystems Inc. has raised CA$26 million (US$20 million) in series A funding to help develop 3D bioprinter technology that uses the science of microfluidics to create fresh human tissue.

BOGOTA, Colombia – The Latin American med-tech sector is moving steadily toward 3D printing solutions to speed up production and cut costs in specific sub-sectors, such as orthotic devices. A case in point is Prothesia, of Monterrey, Mexico.

HONG KONG – South Korea’s Medical IP Co. Ltd., an artificial intelligence (AI)-based medical 3D printing and software company, has won the FDA’s nod for its medical imaging analysis solution Medical Image Processing (Medip).