Two days after the ouster of Susan Monarez as CDC director on Aug. 27, HHS confirmed to BioWorld that James O’Neill is serving as acting director. O’Neill was previously Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services. He has also served as the CEO of the SENS Research Foundation, which merged with Lifespan.io in 2024. The resulting Lifespan Research Institute describes itself as “focused on the defeat of age-related disease and the extension of healthy human lifespan” on its website.

Medtronic plc received U.S. FDA approval for the expanded redo TAVR indication of the Evolut transcatheter aortic valve replacement system. The approval allows for valve-in-valve implantation of a new Evolut valve inside a failed previously implanted TAV made by any manufacturer in patients with severe aortic stenosis considered high-risk for open-heart surgery.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported Aug. 27 that Susan Monarez no longer occupies the post of director for the CDC, a development that arose within hours of the FDA’s approval of two COVID-19 vaccines with historically restrictive labeled indications.

Telix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. received an FDA complete response letter (CRL) a day after the Aug. 27 PDUFA date for its BLA for radiopharmaceutical renal cancer imaging agent, Zircaix (TLX250-CDx, 89Zr-DFO-girentuximab).

Billiontoone Inc.’s Northstar Select comprehensive genomic profiling liquid biopsy assay identified more treatable variants than other tumor profiling platforms in a study published in The Journal of Liquid Biopsy. Notably, the test found clinically actionable alterations substantially below the limit of detection for other tests.

Iantrek Inc. reported the close of a $42 million series C financing round, which it said will facilitate the U.S. commercial launch of its Alloflo Uveo, a bio-interventional ophthalmic surgery solution targeting the lightly used uveoscleral pathway, as well as broader pipeline expansion.

The U.S. FDA’s draft guidance for package labeling recommendations for hernia mesh products did not draw a large volume of comments, but the Medical Device Manufacturers Association advised the agency that the information disclosed on package labels should be limited as the package is often too small to provide adequate readable information.

The U.S. FDA’s Aug. 11, 2025, warning letter to LeMaitre Vascular Inc. discloses that the agency was troubled by what it saw as problems with sterility-related processes used to manufacture the Artegraft device, findings that could complicate relations between the company and its customers.

A new entry in the peer-reviewed literature on Boston Scientific’s Agent drug-coated balloon seems to call into question whether in-stent restenosis should be treated with another stent, a discussion that could torque practice away from the stent-in-stent approach and toward the use of drug-coated balloons.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has reacted to the Federal Circuit’s decision in Shockwave v. CLSI with a policy memo that draws tighter lines around the use of applicant admitted prior art in attempts to invalidate a patent during inter partes reviews.