For people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes and the companies developing technologies to help them, the International Conference on Advanced Technologies & Treatments for Diabetes delivered an abundance of good news. On the type 1 diabetes front, Insulet Corp.’s RADIANT study demonstrated massive improvement in time in range as well as lower glycemic levels for patients switching from multiple injections to the Omnipod 5 automated insulin delivery system.

Biomérieux SA recently received U.S. FDA 510(k) clearance for its Vitek Compact Pro, a system for microorganism identification and Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing. The company hopes that the system will help clinical laboratories combat antimicrobial resistance and diagnose infectious diseases as well as support industrial laboratories in identifying contaminants to ensure consumer safety.

Science ministers from 13 countries in Europe are calling on the European Union to offer a home to researchers affected by the Trump Administration’s cuts. They have written to EU research and innovation commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva asking her to organize a welcome “for brilliant talents from abroad who might suffer from research interference and ill-motivated and brutal funding cuts.”

Alcon AG plans to acquire Lensar Inc. for up to $430 million in a transaction expected to close in the latter half of the year. The acquisition will add Lensar’s Ally robotic cataract laser treatment system, Streamline software technology and Lensar legacy laser system to Alcon’s cataract surgery portfolio and expand global access to Lensar’s femtosecond laser technology.

Third-party litigation funding (TPLF) has a checkered reputation in the U.S. med-tech industry and the practice has now raised hackles in the European Union as well. The European Commission recently posted a document explaining how EU-wide legislation would map onto member state law, the results of which suggest that any pan-EU legislation would be at best a tricky exercise in policymaking.

Roche Holding AG and the University of Liverpool in the U.K. launched an initiative to improve the early detection of rare eye cancers with the help of the Ventana DP 600 digital pathology slide scanner.

Vicentra BV aims to make its Kaleido 2 insulin patch pump and automated insulin delivery system even smaller than its current device, already amongst the smallest, lightest and most precise insulin device on the market, new CEO Tom Arnold told BioWorld. As the company works to meet growing demand for its product, Kaleido has the potential to transform diabetes care, he said.

New Zealand med-tech startup Avasa Ltd. has developed an arterial coupler that could save surgeons 30 minutes in the operating room to better connect arteries.

The U.S. foreign aid cuts and freezes that are taking place under President Donald Trump are putting at risk the global public health gains that have been made against diseases such as malaria, HIV and tuberculosis over the past two decades, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a March 17 media briefing, as he called on other countries to step up and fill the gap.

In a move that surprised many across the health care sector, the U.K. government decided to scrap NHS England, the body which runs the national health service (NHS), and bring it under the control of ministers. “I don’t see why a decision about £200 billion of taxpayer money on something as fundamental to our security as the NHS should be taken by an arms-length body, NHS England,” said Prime Minister, Keir Starmer.