Pomdoctor Ltd. raised $20 million through a Nasdaq IPO on Oct. 8, with the funds geared to expand its mobile health platform for chronic diseases in China.

Eight years after Novartis AG gained U.S. FDA approval of the first CAR T therapy, Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel), for B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, developers are advancing prospects that could significantly impact another disease space outside of cancer – autoimmunity. The efforts are getting a swirl of attention, with Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (BMS) announcing Oct. 10 that it would offer $1.5 billion in cash to buy three-year-old privately held Orbital Therapeutics Inc., including its lead, next-generation CAR T-cell therapy OTX-201, which is designed to reprogram cells in vivo for autoimmune diseases.

Ottobock SE & Co. KGaA got the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on its feet and dancing with Germany’s largest IPO in more than 18 months Oct. 9. The €808 million (US$934.23 million) gave the prosthetics company a market capitalization of €4.2 billion (US$4.88 billion), which rapidly rose as the share price shot up from €66 to €72 at the start of trading. The second med-tech to go public in October should have more company soon, with U.S. molecular diagnostics company Billiontoone Inc. filing Oct. 7 for an IPO with placeholder value of $100 million.

The International Medical Device Regulators Forum (IMDRF) has issued a draft guidance for predetermined change control plans for software as a medical device. The problem for advocates of regulatory harmonization is that the IMDRF draft overlaps awkwardly with the FDA’s approach, which has issued separate policies for the AI subset of device software functions and a separate guidance for all other devices, including non-AI software.

A yearslong bipartisan effort to end the patent-eligibility chaos the U.S. Supreme Court created more than a decade ago could finally come to fruition with the current Congress.

An uncommon route to the public markets – direct listing – paid off for Turn Therapeutics Inc., with shares (NASDAQ:TTRX) closing Oct. 9 at $9.20, up $2.20, or 31%, having risen as high as $26.50 in its second day of trading. The firm is advancing late-stage clinical programs in eczema and onychomycosis. Also in the works are global health initiatives in thermostable vaccine delivery designed to serve underserved areas.

In one of the biggest deals of the waning year, Novo Nordisk A/S is buying Akero Therapeutics Inc. to bolster its metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH)-treatment portfolio. In the $5.2 billion deal, Akero brings its fibroblast growth factor 21 analogue, efruxifermin, which is in a phase III study for treating those with moderate to advanced liver fibrosis and those with cirrhosis.

Owens & Minor Inc. (O&M) is shedding its Products & Healthcare Services (P&HS) segment with an eye towards expanding its leadership position in the home-based care space. The company has agreed to sell its P&HS segment to Platinum Equity, a private equity firm. Platinum will pay $375 million in cash, while Richmond, Va.-based O&M retains a 5% equity stake in the business.

Cala Health Inc.’s KIQ wearable device delivers transcutaneous afferent patterned stimulation through nerves at the wrist that modulate neural activity in the brain and reduces hand tremors in individuals with essential tremor, two recent studies show.

More than a decade after the last idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) treatment gained U.S. FDA approval, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH’s Jascayd (nerandomilast) is set to hit the market following the agency’s green light on Oct. 7. While expected to offer a modest benefit over existing therapies, Jascayd, an orally administered preferential inhibitor of phosphodiesterase 4B with breakthrough therapy status, is viewed by analysts as the first of several potential advancements in the IPF space over the next few years.