LONDON – Neogenomics Inc. reported it plans to acquire Inivata Ltd., taking up a $390 million fixed price option to purchase the liquid biopsy specialist eight months early. The option was agreed to in May 2020, when Neogenomics made a $25 million minority equity investment in Inivata and was granted the right to acquire the rest of the company by the end of 2021.

The European Commission posted a draft legislative framework for regulation of artificial intelligence, a document that spans all potential uses of such algorithms rather than just medical ones.

The European Commission posted a draft legislative framework for regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), a document that spans all potential uses of such algorithms rather than just medical ones. The text seems to suggest that all medical uses of AI will be deemed high-risk uses, but this draft is just the opening salvo in a process that will span a year, perhaps longer, before the legislation will be drafted and finalized.

PARIS – Archos SA reported setting up a center of excellence in med-tech. They are working in close partnership with various SATTs – technology transfer acceleration offices, who finance innovative research lab projects in France. Their new division, Medical Devices Venture, is designed to help develop startups targeting the health care disciplines of the future that combine technology, machine learning and a platform for collaboration.

HONG KONG – Celltrion Inc. has received the European CE mark for Tekitrust, its COVID-19 tests kit developed with Mico Biomed Co. Ltd. “Mico, which is a diagnostic device specialist, partnered with Celltrion to combine both companies’ strengths in the test kit sector,” a Celltrion spokesperson told BioWorld. Mico will manufacture the kits, while Celltrion handles marketing and sales.

LONDON – A single dose of Pfizer Inc./Biontech SE’s COVID-19 vaccine does not promote a strong enough immune response to provide protection against variants of SARS-CoV-2, including the Kent variant B.1.1.7, which as of April 29 had caused 226,635 confirmed infections in the U.K.

PARIS – Urgo Group SAS has just been awarded $27.7 million in financial support from the French government, to help develop artificial skin for treating deep skin wounds and massive burns.

LONDON – The latest tranche of data from an array of large-scale COVID-19 studies running in the U.K. provides real-world evidence that vaccines have a dramatic effect in preventing hospitalization and death, but that there are a very small number of vaccine failures. The data cover 3,842 people who received a vaccine and subsequently were admitted to the hospital between Dec. 8, 2020, when the national vaccination rollout began, and the data cutoff of April 10, 2021.

LONDON – A large scale U.K. study looking at the impact of COVID-19 vaccinations on antibody responses and new infections in 373,402 people in the general population has shown a single dose of vaccine cut infections by 65%.