PARIS – Incepto Medical SAS, in partnership with Marie-Lannelongue Hospital, is developing an automated system to measure maximum aorta diameter. Called ARVA (Augmented Radiology for Vascular Aneurysm), it’s hosted in the cloud and is CE marked as a class I device. “Our tool uses the first algorithm to provide automatic measurement of external aortic diameter along the entire aorta, from ascending aorta to the iliac arteries,” Antoine Jomier, co-founder and CEO of Incepto, told BioWorld. This new tool for radiologists and surgeons will be used to diagnosis and monitor aneurysms.

NHS England has struck new pricing agreements that expands access in the U.K. to blood thinning direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) to tackle strokes in patients with atrial fibrillation. Though still available to NHS clinicians, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH’s blockbuster DOAC Pradaxa (dabigatran) is notably not involved.

A European approval for Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab by year-end looks even more in doubt. A week after being called in before the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) for an oral explanation of the trial data, Biogen Inc. said it received a “negative trend vote” on the marketing authorization application. A formal opinion by the CHMP is expected at its December meeting, but analysts are not optimistic.

PARIS – Bone 3D SAS has signed a partnership with Stratasys Ltd. to put 3D printing technology directly into the hands of all 3,000 French hospitals and their front-line medical professionals. This new service, called Hospifactory, makes it possible to leverage additive manufacturing to produce medical equipment and devices directly on site at the hospital.

A research report by global investment bank Jefferies has found increased investor optimism in the health care market amid COVID-19, with respondents expecting stocks to rise throughout 2022. The Jefferies Healthcare Temperature Check summarizes the views of 500 leaders across the health care sector. Sixty percent of respondents said they believed the MSCI World Health Care Index would be higher by the end of 2022 than at present.

LONDON – There’s not yet proof of the pudding, but Omass Therapeutics Ltd.’s new structure-based technology has passed a key test, in enabling the discovery of orally available small molecules aimed at intractable and poorly drugged membrane and complex-bound protein targets. The targets, including G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), intracellular protein complexes and solute carriers, are relevant to immunology indications and rare diseases with high unmet need.

European regulators have put off a decision on Biogen Inc and Eisai, Co. Ltd.’s controversial Alzheimer’s drug, aducanumab, for likely another month, after the companies announced further supportive data from a follow-up under review by the FDA.

The University of Oxford has begun recruiting for a phase I Ebola vaccine trial, with the first vaccinations based around the same technology as the university’s COVID-19 vaccine.