Theranica Bio-Electronics Ltd. received expanded CE mark approval for Nerivio, a therapy that can both prevent and treat acute migraine in adults and adolescents. The Netanya, Israel-based company is now partnering with a large, publicly traded, pharmaceutical firm to launch the device later this year, first in Germany and then roll out commercial operations in several other European countries in 2024, Alon Ironi, CEO and co-founder of Theranica, told BioWorld.

Rewalk Robotics Ltd. took strides to expand its portfolio—and achieve profitability—with an agreement to acquire Alterg Inc., a provider of anti-gravity systems for use in physical and neurological rehabilitation. Alterg uses NASA-derived differential air pressure (DAP) technology to reduce gravity’s effects on individuals with mobility challenges and pain. The $19 million deal is expected to close August 11, with additional cash earnouts tied to future revenue growth over the next two years.

An estimated 10% to 20% of adolescents worldwide struggle with mental health issues. According to the CDC’s most recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey, nearly 60% of teen girls in the U.S. reported feeling sad every day for at least two weeks in the previous year and 22% of high school students considered taking their own lives. Yet despite these trends, the majority of mental health conditions in young people go undiagnosed and untreated.

Results from a meta-analysis of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided adaptive radiation for prostate cancer by radiation oncologists from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute demonstrated the treatment reduces complications while comparing well to standard approaches. The study was published in Cancer.

Quantum Genomics SAS recently entered exclusive talks with Vistacare Medical SAS to create a leading player in complex wound management. “Vistacare Medical’s innovative contactless treatment technology, our financial backing and stock market listing, and the complementary nature of our two teams will enable us to accelerate the development of this new medical device on an international scale,” Jean-Philippe Milon, CEO of Quantum Genomics SAS, told BioWorld.

The European Union and the U.S. have wrapped up a data privacy framework that covers broad swaths of both economies, including the transmission of clinical trial data across the Atlantic Ocean. Drug and device makers that want to make use of this framework and thus jettison the contractual clause to ensure data privacy may find compliance with this new framework much more efficient in the long run, but will have to do a lot of compliance work on the front end to achieve those efficiencies.

A research team from Leipzig University, the Max Planck Institute and Heidelberg University, all in Germany, devised a new segmentation algorithm for stroke lesions that improves upon previous methods. They used machine-learning models to effect CT image segmentation in the early stages of acute stroke. The research team published their findings on the fully convolutional graph network in July in the Journal of Medical Imaging.

A new bacteriophage-based rapid test has the potential to identify the specific pathogen causing a urinary tract infection (UTI) at the point of care, enabling targeted use of antibiotics.

The test uses naturally occurring phages identified as predators of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella and Enterococci that are genetically modified to make any bacterium they invade bioluminescent.

In a proof-of-concept study, researchers at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, were able to reliably detect the pathogenic bacteria in a urine sample in less than four hours. That compares to the 18 – 30 hours it takes to culture samples in a central lab and to identify a specific microbe using conventional diagnostics.

The U.K. government and the health care industry should focus more on behavioral-based approaches and preventative care in a bid to tackle health inequality, rising costs and an ageing population, Anton Derlyatka, CEO and co-founder of Sweatcoin Ltd., told BioWorld. Sweatcoin is a step-counting app that rewards users for their daily steps. The company has worked with the NHS for the last three years and is currently working on pilot programs to help tackle type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases by incentivizing people to move.