The U.K.’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends the use of pulsed field ablation as an option to treat NHS patients with atrial fibrillation. NICE said evidence shows the procedure reduces atrial fibrillation and its symptoms, increases quality of life in the short term and raises no major safety concerns.

The med tech patent wars opened a new front in the region of screening tests for colorectal cancer, pitting Exact Sciences Corp., of Madison, Wisc., against St. Louis-based Geneoscopy Inc.

Degradation is a therapeutic strategy that could offer possibilities to get at currently undruggable target proteins. In targeted degradation, compounds induce interactions between a target protein and a protein that can tag the target for degradation. In principle, there are several pathways that could be used for such tagging; the most attention has gone to ubiquitin ligases, in particular cereblon, a protein that is part of a ubiquitin ligase complex and the target of several approved drugs.

Alcon AG plans to acquire Lumithera Inc., adding its photobiomodulation (PBM) device designed to treat early and intermediate dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) to the Alcon portfolio. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The move continues Alcon’s strategic expansion in eye care, following on its recent acquisitions of Aurion Biotech Inc. and Lensar Inc.