Staar Surgical Co. reported that its 45-day window shop period ended on Sept. 19 with no competing bids made, and it urged its shareholders to vote in favor of completing the $1.5 billion cash merger with Alcon AG.
Med-tech happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Agilent Technologies, Astrazeneca, Femasys, Immunovia, Lunit, Medical Electronic Systems, Onconetix, Premier, Sophia Genetics.
Regulatory snapshots, including global submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Techsomed, Tempus.
The second day’s meeting of the U.S. CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) took up guidelines related to COVID-19 vaccines, of which an outspoken skeptic is Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy – who in June fired all 17 members of ACIP and replaced them with names more to his liking.
Two back-to-back papers published in Nature on Sept. 10, 2025, shed new light on the unexpected role of neurons in shaping the evolution of small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). It’s already known that, in gliomas, cerebral cancer cells actively damage axons, contributing to tumor progression through direct neural disruption.
Medtronic plc received U.S. FDA approval for Altaviva, a minimally invasive implantable tibial neuromodulation device designed to treat urge urinary incontinence. Insertion near the ankle requires neither sedation nor imaging and patients walk out the clinic door with the device already activated.
Organox Ltd.’s normothermic machine perfusion device, Metra, has been cleared by the U.S. FDA for use during air transport. The greenlight from the regulatory body paves the way for the broader use of donor organs that might otherwise be discarded, as the Metra system circulates oxygen and nutrient rich perfusate through the organ at near-body temperature, extending preservation times.