India is taking steps to separate how it regulates medical devices and pharmaceuticals, as it works to reduce its dependency on imports of devices and turn itself into a global hub for med-tech innovation and manufacturing.

Two new sets of draft guidelines in China aim to strengthen and streamline registration systems while clearly spelling out additional rules for device makers to ensure quality management and controls, including strengthening controls over any outsourced manufacturing and calling of makers of implantable devices to manufacture in house.

SK Bioscience Co. Ltd.  and Vaxxas Pty. Ltd. have entered into a joint development agreement that could revolutionize vaccines by developing a vaccine-delivery device combination product using Vaxxas’ high-density microarray patch (HD-MAP) coupled with SK Bioscience’s typhoid vaccine, Skytyphoid.

Brainaurora Medical Technology Ltd. has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong to develop its digital therapeutics for the treatment of cognitive impairment diseases. The company claims to be the first in China to launch a digital therapeutics (DTx) product for cognitive impairment, as well as the largest company in China in terms of revenue from the commercialization of cognitive impairment DTx products in 2022.

Broncus Holding Corp. successfully completed a clinical study of the world’s first transbronchial radiofrequency ablation system for lung cancer treatment.

Peijia Medical Co. Ltd. reported the implant of its Taurustrio transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) system in a first patient as part of a multi-center trial getting one step closer to launching the first TAVR system for aortic regurgitation (AR) in China.

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) devices are all the rage for treatment of aortic valve disease, but that doesn’t mean valve reconstruction via the so-called Ozaki procedure has been consigned to the pages of medical history. The U.K.’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has recommended that trusts in the U.K. health system use this procedure only in clinical trials at least for the time being, although the agency noted that the Ozaki procedure allows the patient to sidestep the need for long-term antithrombotic therapy, a big selling point for patients and clinicians alike.

Laboratory for Advanced Medicine & Health Group (LAMH)’s subsidiary Guangzhou Youze Biotechnology Co. Ltd. received marketing approval in China for its methylation test, which the company says is the first methylation test kit for liver cancer on the market in the world.

Mirxes Holding Company Ltd. raised $50 million in a series D funding round to expand its cancer early detection blood tests, including its lead product stomach cancer blood test Gastroclear, in the Asia Pacific region. Mirxes uses RNA technology to develop diagnostic solutions for the early detection of diseases.

Genesis Medtech Group received marketing approval from China’s National Medical Products Administration for its laparoscopic surgical device called Artisential, which helps surgeons in precision surgery. The approval not only adds another market in which the device is available but will allow Genesis to expand its reach in China.