With the pace of neurotechnology development accelerating, a wave of brain-computer interface (BCI) companies is emerging on the heels of the pioneers. In the latest installment of BioWorld’s series on the BCI field, Rotem Kopel, CEO of Ability Neurotech SA, explains that following in the footsteps of the established players has its advantages. “It's not too bad to be a fast follower to a company like Neuralink.” Ability and its peers are either building more complete systems, or exploring different approaches from electrodes with newer materials to nanoparticles, while addressing technical and clinical challenges identified by earlier entrants and targeting different indications.

Tissium SA secured €60 million (US$68 million) in a financing package, which includes €30 million in a series D2 round and a €30 million facility from the European Investment Bank. The funds will be used to support the company's commercial and clinical activities, as well as its pipeline development and expansion of its platform technology, which removes the need for sutures and leads to better nerve repair.

The outbreak of hantavirus infection first reported on the MV Hondius cruise ship on May 2 is all but over, with most isolating passengers, crew members and other contacts leaving quarantine over the past week, as the 42-day incubation period drew to an end.

Antares Therapeutics Inc. drew Novartis AG to the table for a potential $1.9 billion collaboration, including a $105 million up-front payment, to discover small-molecule programs against oncology targets considered to be undruggable. It’s Antares’ first partnership since spinning out of Scorpion Therapeutics Inc. about a year ago.

Eli Lilly and Co. posted $19.8 billion in first-quarter 2026 revenue, driven by tirzepatide, marketed as Mounjaro for type 2 diabetes and Zepbound for obesity. The Indianapolis-based drugmaker is channeling cash flow from these blockbuster GLP-1 drugs into an aggressive dealmaking campaign — about $25.1 billion across 10 announced acquisitions so far this year and more than $26 billion in other closed deals.

The field of BCI is continually evolving; as such, companies are increasingly highlighting the potential of their technologies to transform care. For advanced players, with fully developed BCI systems, the sector is approaching an inflection point as the technology transitions from early feasibility studies into pivotal trials. The focus now for many is on generating the long-term safety, efficacy and real-world usability data needed to support regulatory approval and broader clinical adoption.

The industry is stepping up its campaign to persuade European governments to increase their drugs budgets, in what is described as a landmark report making the case that spending on patented drugs is not a cost to be contained, but an investment in health and the economy.

Decades of research are helping unravel the “black box” of the brain. The second article in BioWorld’s series on the Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) field looks at how simultaneous breakthroughs in AI technology are pushing the BCI field from a theoretical concept to a potential real-world, clinical option for individuals, particularly in China where the National Medical Products Administration greenlighted the world’s first invasive BCI system – Neuracle Medical Technology Co. Ltd.’s Neural Electronic Opportunity – for clinical use in March 2026.

Europe must focus on prevention and innovation to ensure its health care systems are sustainable in the long term, said Olivér Várhelyi, European commissioner for health and animal welfare. With an aging population, rising chronic diseases, a stretched workforce and geopolitical tensions, the universal health coverage that Europeans enjoy is under threat, he told delegates at the HLTH Europe conference in Amsterdam last week.

Bionyra Pharma has emerged with a $165 million oversubscribed series A and a portfolio of three antibodies with extended half-lives that are designed to offer improvements over existing classes of monoclonal antibodies for treating chronic inflammatory diseases.