Owkin Inc. partnered with Astrazeneca plc to develop an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tool to pre-screen for germline BRCA mutations (gBRCAm) in breast cancer directly from digitized pathology slides. The companies hope that the gBRCA pre-screening solution will not only transform patients’ lives but bring value to health care systems.

Tokyo-based Olympus Corp. launched a new video imaging platform called Visera S (OTV-S500) in Europe and select Asian countries September 2024 while advancing more rollouts for the product worldwide.

Venture Capital firm Asabys Partners closed its second fund, Sabadell Asabys Health Innovation Investments II, with total commitments of €180 million ($200 million). The funds will go towards 12 to 15 companies developing health care solutions across the medical device, digital health and biopharma fields.

A collaborating team of researchers from the U.K.’s University College London and the Incliva Biomedical Research Institute in Valencia, Spain, filed for protection of a machine learning model called AMMON-OHE to predict occurrence of overt hepatic encephalopathy in patients with cirrhosis of the liver.

The med-tech sector is at a turning point with great technologies, investors and buyers coming together to create a healthier ecosystem, Luc Marengère, managing partner at TVM Capital Life Science told BioWorld. As such, the venture capital firm has its eye on a new fund as it finalizes the portfolio for the current one.

The U.K. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence reported that mental health professionals experienced a dramatic increase in referrals for anxiety and depression over the past decade but noted that digital therapies might help manage the caseload, representing a significant opportunity for developers of these products.

Chronic pain is taking a significant toll on the mental health and wellbeing of young people across Europe, according to a survey commissioned by Boston Scientific Corp. Among 16 to 24-year-olds, over half feel anxiety multiple times a week due to their chronic pain and almost one in three said that they “feel like they can’t go on” because of their pain.

Onward Medical NV successfully implanted its Arc-BCI system, which restores direct communication from the brain to the spinal cord enabling lower limb mobility, into a third patient.

Although financing is returning to the European med-tech market, it remains difficult for CEOs to raise funds for their products.

Creo Medical Group plc entered into an agreement to sell a 51% stake in its European consumable business to Chinese medical device distributor, Micro-Tech Co. Ltd. for approximately €36.7 million (US$41 million) in cash on a cash free, debt free basis.