Okami Medical Inc., which last year gained the U.S. FDA’s nod for the LOBO vascular occlusion system, has reported the close of a series D financing totaling $7.2 million. The round was led by U.S. Venture Partners and joined by members of Okami's board and other stakeholders.

Startup Foldax Inc. has raised a $20 million series D round to back its development of biopolymer-based surgical and minimally invasive heart valves. Heart valves typically are either based on porcine or bovine tissues or are mechanical.

LONDON – Illumina Inc. has named the first three U.K. genomics startups to be backed by its accelerator program, after expanding the scheme from the San Francisco Bay Area to its European headquarters in Cambridge, U.K.

French startup Affluent Medical SA has launched a European pilot study in humans of its native-like transcatheter mitral valve technology. The Epygon valve is designed to restore the normal blood flow vortex in the left side of the heart and treat left ventricle disease, particularly in so-called “functional” patients.

LONDON – Epidarex Capital announced the closure of its £102.1 million (US$126.3 million) third fund, which will invest in very early stage biomedical and med-tech spin-outs from high-class but “under-ventured” universities in regions of the country where venture money is in short supply.

China-based precision oncology company Genetron Holdings Ltd. and prenatal molecular testing company Progenity Inc. each successfully priced an IPO. This is just the latest demonstration that molecular diagnostics is gaining real traction when it comes to investment.