In what represents just the company’s fourth PCT filing, San Jose, Calif.-based Squirrel Corp. seeks protection for systems for electroporation or pulsed field ablation (PFA) treatment of soft tissue tumors.

Royal Philips NV may feel it has had enough recent interaction with the U.S. FDA, but the company is now in receipt of a warning letter from the agency over a facility located in Suzhou, China. The FDA was none too fond of the facility’s handling of a contract manufactured data cable used in CT systems because of malfunctions that may have delayed diagnostic imaging procedures, representing yet another regulatory distraction for a company that recently cleared a long-running conflict with the FDA over CPAP machines.

China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) has issued a guidance for human factors engineering (HFE) of medical devices, a document that by some accounts aligns fairly well with guidance from the U.S. FDA. However, Yvonne Limpens, manager of the human factors program at Emergo by UL, said NMPA may push for domestic HFE testing on imported devices because of a perception that device usability may be different in China than in other nations, thus adding to the cost of doing business in the world’s second most populous nation.

Molecular You Corp. said it has achieved a significant milestone in the early detection of pancreatic cancer. A case report, published in the journal OMICS, described the effectiveness of the company’s proteomic and metabolomic analysis – known as longitudinal multiomics monitoring (LMOM) – in identifying pancreatic cancer in a symptom-free 60-year-old female patient. A biopsy on lesions discovered because of the company’s diagnostic tests confirmed stage 1 pancreatic cancer.

Neurovalens Ltd recently received U.S. FDA clearance for its Modius Stress device, a neurostimulator that treats people suffering from generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). It also closed a £2.1 million (US$2.65 million) funding round and is planning to raise up to $50 million in a series B fundraising round to be launched later this year.

Smart Reporting GmbH raised €23 million (US$24.5 million) in a series C funding round for its medical reporting software which automates and streamlines physicians’ workload. The funding is a “significant accelerator” for the company, “catalyzing business growth, product development, and expansion into international markets,” Wieland Sommer, founder and co-CEO of Smart Reporting told BioWorld.

Quest Diagnostics Inc. expanded its Alzheimer’s disease (AD) portfolio with a blood-based biomarker test for phosphorylated tau 217 (pTau217). The test joins the company’s plasma tests for p-tau181, beta-amyloid 42/40 ratio and ApoE genetic risk as well as several cerebrospinal fluid tests for Alzheimer’s.

Brain Trust Bio Inc. (BTB) will soon begin phase I trials in Australia of its IT-Riluzole delivered to the brain via a continuous intrathecal drug delivery method in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The company’s concept is to take known drugs that work and make them better by delivering them exclusively to where patients need them most, BTB co-founder and CEO Chen Benkler told BioWorld.