LONDON – Conflicting data from around the world on the extent to which the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 is reducing the effectiveness of vaccines is generating uncertainty over the need, or not, for booster programs.

The board of rare disease specialist Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB has accepted a takeover bid from the U.S. private equity firm Advent International and Aurora Investment, an affiliate of capital markets group GIC, valuing it at about SEK69.4 billion (US$8 billion).

Ventura Capital has led a $60 million series A investment round into consumer genetic testing company Dnanudge Ltd. It is the first major fundraising round for the London-based company, which will be used to accelerate deployment of its DNA testing service worldwide. Dnanudge is aiming to tap into the lucrative consumer DNA testing market with Dnaband, a wearable device that stores digital DNA and helps users make healthier choices by personalizing shopping behaviors. The company is also planning a service for personalized skincare shopping.

LONDON – One in seven children and young people who have COVID-19 go on to develop symptoms of Long COVID, according to the first cut of data from a large national study involving 6,804 participants ages 11 to 17 who had PCR tests between January and March this year.

Samsung Bioepis Co. Ltd. has emerged as the first company to obtain marketing authorization from the EMA for a biosimilar of Lucentis (ranibizumab), a significant development for the Korean biosimilar specialist. The approval comes less than two months after the company received a positive opinion from the EMA’s CHMP for Byooviz (ranibizumab), formerly called SB-11.

PARIS – Researchers from the department of radiation oncology at the European Hospital Georges Pompidou (HEGP) and Stanford University School of Medicine have together developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) prediction tool for patients diagnosed with prostate cancer. These researchers have just published a validation of this interpretable AI model in Cancers. “It’s a question of distinguishing patients at risk of mortality from aggressive cancer that is spreading rapidly, from patients who might have far less aggressive cancer and who are not likely to die from it in under 10, 15 or even 20 years,” Jean-Emmanuel Bibault, radiotherapy oncologist at HEGP, told BioWorld.

PARIS – A consortium led by French clinical and scientific experts has just published results in the Journal of Experimental Medicine of a study showing the contribution of a new simplified diagnostic test in better identifying the level of contagiousness of subjects infected with SARS-CoV-2.

LONDON – Endomag Ltd. has received endorsement from the U.K. health technology assessment body NICE, opening the way to broader adoption of its Magtrace non-radioactive cancer staging technology in the National Health Service, and providing backing for commercialization of the system in other markets.

Johnson & Johnson has announced new data supporting use of its COVID-19 vaccine as a booster shot, after separate trial data from the U.K. showed effects of several vaccines waned after six months.