The U.S. National Institutes of Health reported the launch of a network for clinical trials that will examine the utility of cancer screening tools, which will start with a pilot study of multi-cancer detection (MCD) tests.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has released a guidance to aid patent examiners in dealing with questions of obviousness in patent applications, but patent attorney Michael Borella told BioWorld that this new guidance could resurrect the law of unintended consequences. Borella, a partner in the Chicago office of McDonnell Boehnen Hulburt & Berghoff LLP, said the guidance might lead to more inappropriate rejections of patent claims for obviousness, and thus make the process of obtaining a clean patent more difficult, not less.

South Korea’s Cell & Growth Factor Biotechnology Co. Ltd. (CG Bio) became the largest shareholder of Busan-based Inosys Korea after claiming a 34.7% stake in the embattled orthopedic implant med-tech firm.

Continuing its aggressive buying spree, Bruker Corp. entered into a definitive share purchase agreement with Tecfin S.à r.l. to acquire molecular diagnostics (MDx) company Elitechgroup SAS for €870 million (US$943.5 million), excluding the Elitech clinical chemistry business. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2024 and will be funded with a mix of cash on hand and debt financing.