The Australian government is investing AU$1.89 billion (US$1.25 billion) in what it is calling a “once-in-a generation transformation” of health and medical research in Australia with $1.4 billion tagged for new research for the Medical Research Future Fund.

Masimo Corp.’s pride and joy, the Stork baby monitor, achieved a new developmental milestone with U.S. FDA clearance for over-the-counter marketing. The agency cleared Stork, which monitors key vital signs including oxygen saturation level, pulse rate and skin temperature, for use on a prescription basis in December. It has been available in the U.S. as a health and wellness device since August 2023.

The U.K. Medicines and Health Care Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is among the regulators across the globe that are scrambling to keep pace with artificial intelligence (AI) in medical devices, releasing an April 30, 2024, paper on its own approach. One of the key considerations in this paper is that MHRA expects to up-classify some AI-enabled device software functions in its ongoing regulatory revamp, a prediction that suggests a more stringent premarket path for these products in the years ahead.

The U.K. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has posted an early value assessment review of digital technologies for the management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, giving the conditional nod to only one technology — the Mycopd app by London-based My Mhealth Ltd.

Irlab Therapeutics AB has obtained clearance from the Swedish Medical Products Agency to initiate a phase I study of IRL-757, which is being developed as a treatment to counteract apathy in Parkinson’s disease and other neurological conditions.

Cytovale Inc. has posted a feverish run of wins lately. The company gained U.S. FDA clearance for its Intellisep rapid test for sepsis in January 2023, raised $84 million in a series C in November and just published results showing the test has negative predictive value of 97.5%.

Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have generated a tsunami of popular dystopian musings, but the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has its own concerns about AI’s impact on intellectual property. PTO recently announced that it is looking for feedback on the use of AI to produce what litigants might spuriously claim is prior art, a concern that must be addressed if the patent system is to avoid crashing under the weight of an unmanageable volume of AI-generated clutter.

Apple Inc. said the U.S. FDA has approved the Apple Watch's atrial fibrillation (AF) history feature under its rigorous Medical Device Development Tools (MDDT) program that specifies what devices health professionals can rely on.

Context Therapeutics Inc. has received FDA clearance of its IND application for CTIM-76, a Claudin 6 (CLDN6) x CD3 T-cell engaging bispecific antibody.