Carl Zeiss Meditec AG reported it plans to buy Dutch Ophthalmic Research Center BV (DORC) from investment firm Eurazeo SE for approximately €985 million (US$1.08 billion).

The holidays are looking brighter for Masimo Corp. with two bits of good cheer this week for the company. Apple Inc. confirmed to BioWorld that it will preemptively pull two smartwatches from its website and retailers in response to a Masimo infringement case that persuaded the International Trade Commission to block their import.

Biotelemetry Inc. and its subsidiary, Lifewatch Services Inc., agreed to pay $14.7 million to settle a whistleblower case alleging overbilling for remote cardiac monitoring. The qui tam case contended that the company’s online portal for its ACT-3L/MCT-3L device and its staff consistently and intentionally forced physicians’ staff to select or themselves selected the most expensive application for the device, despite intent and even written instructions to choose a less expensive service.

Uromems SAS is seeking patent protection for a system for the control of an inflatable implant device with a variable volume fluid reservoir that may be used to plug an anatomical duct such as a urethra, gastric duct, colon, or rectum, or configured for use as a penile implant.

Both the U.K. MHRA and the U.S. FDA approved their first CRISPR-based gene therapy in 2023. Crispr Therapeutics AG and partner Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s Casgevy (exagamglogene autotemcel, exa-cel) was approved by the MHRA in November and the FDA on Dec. 8. The U.K. approval is for both severe sickle cell disease (SCD) and transfusion-dependent thalassemia (TDT). In the U.S., the approval is for severe SCD, with a PDUFA date for TDT coming up in spring 2024.