A research team led by neuroscientists and neurosurgeons from Paris-Saclay University have recently managed to demonstrate that electrical stimulation of the thalamus can restore consciousness when this has been impaired.

Biogen Inc. has given up on its attempt to get its Alzheimer’s disease drug Aduhelm (aducanumab) approved by regulators in Europe, deciding to withdraw its filing midway through a review of a previous rejection. The company had asked the European Medicines Agency’s CHMP to reconsider its negative opinion for Aduhelm in December 2021. But its subsidiary in the Netherlands wrote to the EMA this week saying that it had decided to withdraw its marketing authorization application after all.

Cairdac SAS closed its first funding round, raising nearly $18.5 million to increase development of an autonomous, leadless pacemaker transcatheter system (ALPS) powered entirely using kinetic energy from the heart. Five French private equity funds and banks participated in this series A round.

The U.K.’s drugs regulator has approved the COVID-19 vaccine from Valneva SE – although the shot is likely only to be offered to health workers in Scotland after the Westminster government rejected it because rivals beat it to market.

The German Medical Technology Association, BVMed, and the French medical technology industries association, SNITEM, have issued a joint warning highlighting the risk of collapse in patient care throughout the EU.

Making it a done deal, the European Council adopted proposals April 12 to ensure the continued long-term supply of medicines from Great Britain to Northern Ireland and to address supply concerns in Cyprus, Ireland and Malta, which historically have been dependent on drugs from the U.K.

The U.K. plan to fix the market failure in antibiotics has taken a significant step forward with the publication of guidance estimating the value of two drugs to the National Health Service.

Meduni Vienna, the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, is working on a novel eye scanner combining the structural and functional sensitivity of optical coherence tomography (OCT) with the chemical specificity of Raman spectroscopy, to acquire data from the living human eye.

The biopharma industry signed on to a new pledge to increase the availability of innovative drugs across the EU and shave months from the time patients in some EU member states must wait for access to new drugs. Members of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations committed to file for pricing and reimbursement in all EU countries as soon as possible and no later than two years after receiving central EU market authorization – if local systems allow it.