LONDON – French venture capital firm Kurma Partners has announced the first closing at €50 million (US$58.6 million) of its second fund to be wholly devoted to seed and early stage investment in diagnostics. Kurma Diagnostics 2 (KDx2) will be invested in molecular and digital diagnostics technologies being spun out of universities and research centers across Europe, backing a total of 15 companies.

DUBLIN – In what continues to be a year like no other, European biotechnology firms engaged in drug development raised $4.783 billion in equity financing during the third quarter. It is an unprecedented level of funding for the sector.

PARIS – Gleamer SAS has secured $8.75 million in series A financing for its CE-marked artificial intelligence (AI) application that automatically detects all types of fracture in radiography. “This funding will allow us to move forward with launching Boneview around the world,” Christian Allouche, CEO and co-founder of Gleamer, told BioWorld.

DUBLIN – The ongoing legal uncertainty surrounding the transfer of data from European research institutions or companies to international partners shows little sign of resolution, despite the urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has engendered an extraordinary collaborative response from the global scientific community.

LONDON – Oxford Immunotec plc is aiming to plug a significant gap in the COVID-19 diagnostics landscape, with the development of a commercial clinical grade test for quantifying T cell responses to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. T-Spot Discovery SARS-CoV-2, currently available for research use only, is based on the same automated technology as the company’s tuberculosis diagnostic, which is approved for use in more than 60 countries.

LONDON – As the last scheduled talks on the future EU/U.K. trading arrangements got underway on Sept. 29, the pharmaceutical industry across Europe issued an urgent plea for medicines to be spliced out of the contentious negotiations. In a joint statement, the U.K. and European industry organizations called for a mutual recognition agreement (MRA) to prevent the need for retesting of medicines imported from the EU to the U.K., in the event there is no deal.

PARIS – Miracor Medical SA secured a $28 million series E funding round for its Pressure-controlled Intermittent Coronary Sinus Occlusion (PiCSO) impulse system, intended for treating patients presenting with ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI). “This funding will be used to move the PiCSO clinical trial program forward, and to begin distributing our technology in Europe,” Olivier Delporte, CEO of Miracor, told BioWorld.

Abbott Laboratories is celebrating another win with its continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) technology. This time, the company revealed that it has scored the CE mark for its next-generation Freestyle Libre 3 system. Wells Fargo’s Larry Biegelsen noted that the arrival of the CE mark came slightly earlier than his group had expected.

Boston Scientific Corp. reported the controlled launch of its Acurate Neo2 aortic valve system in Europe. The next-generation transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) technology extends the clinical performance of the original Acurate Neo platform and includes an expanded indication for patients with aortic stenosis.

Wellington Life Sciences general partner Regina Hodits, during a talk with CBT Advisors CEO Steve Dickman at the recent Biopharm America meeting, said the disaster scenario feared for European investments when COVID-19 struck “turned out very different. We never have a lot of time off in summer, not as much as we would want to, but this year we certainly had no time off,” as portfolio firms found money and Wellington tapped new opportunities.