The $12.5 billion acquisition of Avidity Biosciences Inc. by Novartis AG strengthens the company’s neuroscience pipeline and marks the second biggest deal that’s been announced this year. It also is the fifth M&A deal in the past five weeks to top the $1 billion mark, a sign that the market may be strengthening.

Sustaining healthy weight loss is about so much more than cutting calories or injecting drugs, as many GLP-1 users are finding out. Withings SA continues to expand its obesity care management ecosystem and the capabilities of its connected scale to support patients through their weight loss journey and their lives after reaching goal, potentially addressing the vexing problem of patients rapidly regaining all – and often more – weight once they discontinue the drugs.

Mode Sensors AS received U.S. FDA 510(k) clearance for its Re:Balans hydration monitoring system. The wearable patch sensor allows for the continuous monitoring of body hydration to detect fluid imbalances using thoracic bioimpedance technology to deliver automatic, accurate data to help physicians in fluid management.

Adocia SA is looking to further apply its Biochaperone formulation technology to metabolic disorders, Olivier Soula, Adocia co-founder and CEO told BioWorld, the firm having recently gained positive top-line phase III results of Tonghua Dongbao Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s THDB-0206 injection (Biochaperone Lispro) in diabetes patients in China.

French VC Andera Partners has reached the first close of its Biodiscovery Fund 7 at more than €300 million (US$349 million) and says it is on track to surpass the size of the previous fund, which closed at €456 million during the pandemic-driven boom of 2021.

It has been a positive year for med tech compared to previous years, said Antoine Papiernik, chairman and managing partner at Sofinnova Partners. The IPO market has reopened, several large financing deals have closed, and new players have entered the sector.

Ipsen SA is expanding its cancer portfolio with the €1 billion (US$1.16 billion) acquisition of immuno-oncology specialist Imcheck SAS, and will pay €350 million up front with the balance to come in regulatory and sales-based milestones for the lead program ICT-01.

The U.K’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council provided the University of Oxford with £11 million (US$ 14.7 million) in research funding to develop technologies that will reduce or eliminate chronic pain.

Interim results from the PRIMAVERA study published in the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrated that Science Corp.'s Prima retinal implant restored vision, enabling 80% of patients to read at 12 months. Participants had age-related macular degeneration-related geographic atrophy resulting in total loss of central vision.

The European Commission has proposed legislation that would ease some of the EU’s barriers to innovation, but MedTech Europe said that while the European Innovation Act would be helpful, it is no substitute for fixing what’s already ailing the EU med-tech industry.