New hires and promotions in the med-tech industry, including: Aavantibio, Advanced Sterilization Products, Ceryx Medical, Dnanexus, Flatiron Health, Fortive, Paige, Rebus Biosystems, Renovacare, Zillion.
Keeping you up to date on recent developments in oncology, including: NCI team devises method to recruit myeloid cells in pushback against cancer; Algorithm ranks cancer therapies for efficacy; New twist on quantum dots could revolutionize imaging.
The latest salvo in the debate over patents protecting COVID-19-related drugs, devices and vaccines came this week from U.S. industry organizations, including Advamed, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
The FDA approved the world's first non-surgical heart valve to treat severe pulmonary valve regurgitation, which often affects individuals with congenital heart disease. Medtronic plc’s Harmony transcatheter pulmonary valve system (TPV) improves blood flow to the lungs without open-heart surgery. The device could extend the time before an individual born with heart disease needs open-heart surgery and the total number of such surgeries they have to endure over their lifetime.
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has launched a surveillance system that can detect SARS-CoV-2 in ambient air in indoor spaces, providing a potential complement to individual testing and other COVID-19 safety protocols. The system, called the Aerosolsense Sampler, works by capturing a sample of the ambient air on a cartridge using Thermo Fisher’s collection substrate.
Somalogic Inc. has agreed to go public via a merger with blank-check company CM Life Sciences II. Upon closing, CMLS II – a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) sponsored by affiliates of Casdin Capital LLC and Corvex Management LP – will be renamed Somalogic and its common stock listed on the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol SLGC.
LONDON – Getting a handle on the specificity and sensitivity of rapid COVID-19 antibody tests, how they compare to each other and how they should be applied in population screening to understand who has had the virus and how it has spread, has been a source of difficulty and dispute between manufacturers, clinicians and public health experts.
HONG KONG – Johnson & Johnson Vision (J&J Vision) has received its first global approval from Japan for its Acuvue Theravision with Ketotifen contact lenses. The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s green light will help with patients with vision correction, while simultaneously alleviating ocular allergic symptoms for allergic conjunctivitis, while they wear the lenses.
Regulatory snapshots, including global submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Helius Medical Technologies, Medtronic, Qiagen, STS Lab.