Iterative Scopes Inc. picked up $30 million in series A financing to advance artificial intelligence (AI)-powered precision medicine for gastroenterology. The money will be used to further develop the company’s algorithms and to propel its growing life sciences businesses. Spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by founder and CEO Jonathan Ng, the company is developing AI-driven computational tools to identify appropriate treatments and guide clinical trials for patients suffering from gastrointestinal diseases.

Intervenn Biosciences raised $201 million in a series C financing led by new investors Softbank Group, Heritage Provider Network, Irving Investors and Highside Capital Management. The proceeds are earmarked to speed development and commercialization of Dawn, a liquid biopsy assay for immune checkpoint inhibitor prediction, and to expand the network of partnerships on the company’s artificial intelligence (AI)-driven glycoproteomics platform.

Biofourmis Inc. won a breakthrough devices nod from the FDA for its Biovitalshf solution, a digital therapeutic for patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). The company, which is pursuing the de novo pathway for the therapy, plans to launch a pivotal trial next month. Biovitalshf is intended to augment guideline-directed use of heart failure medications to manage patients in combination with traditional pharmacotherapy. The software application integrates physiological monitoring, symptoms and signs reporting, patient engagement, medication management and communications to provide clinicians with personalized and specific recommendations about their medication.

PARIS – Peek Health SA raised $3.5 million in series A funding to ramp development of its 3D pre-op digital planning tools used in orthopedic surgery. This investment was led by two Portuguese venture capital firms: Grosvenor House of Investments SCR SA and Portugal Ventures SA.

Medtronic plc got a thumbs up from the FDA for two Accurhythm algorithms to detect atrial fibrillation and asystole in patients who have heart rhythm abnormalities. The new artificial intelligence (AI)-based algorithms are designed for use on the company’s Linq II insertable cardiac monitor (ICM). Dublin-based Medtronic said the Accurhythm AI algorithms will be available on its Carelink Network later this year for use with all implanted Linq II devices in the U.S.

Rsip Vision Ltd. has maintained its momentum with a couple of new software module releases, one focused on sports medicine and another for robotic assisted surgery. The most recent release is a software module that enables deep learning-based segmentation of joint cartilage from MRI scans of hips, knees and ankles. “It's about using AI-based auto segmentation to provide clinically valuable measurements,” Moshe Safran, the CEO of Rsip Vision U.S., told BioWorld.

PARIS – French sovereign bank Bpifrance SA, the Digital Health Agency (ANS) and Impact Healthcare SAS have just published results from the first survey on progress being made by digital health startups in France. The survey, with financial support from Astrazeneca plc from the U.K. and French law firm Delsol Avocats Selarl, was carried out among roughly 100 founders of digital health startups in France. It reveals a lot of information relating to the progress made by digital health projects 18 months following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. “It is a matter of recognizing there are barriers to the French market even though e-health products and services are booming following the COVID-19 crisis,” Jean-Yves Robin, managing director of Impact Healthcare and co-author of the study, told BioWorld.