The U.S. House of Representatives has passed an agreement with the Biden administration on the debt ceiling, a deal that does not affect mandatory spending programs such as Medicare. However, the agreement, which still must gain the Senate’s stamp of approval, appears to eliminate any chance of yet more monies for the National Institutes of Health or the FDA, two programs of intense interest for companies in the life sciences.

With False Claims Act (FCA) whistle-blower lawsuits multiplying amid the complexity of regulations that often are unclear, the U.S. Supreme Court provided some clarity as to what constitutes a false claim in a unanimous opinion handed down June 1. But it’s not what the biopharma and med-tech industries were hoping for.

In a new health technology assessment, the U.K. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has voiced misgivings about the evidence behind the use of MRI/ultrasound fusion systems to perform needle biopsy for suspected prostate cancer. NICE said the evidence for these systems could be bolstered by additional research comparing fusion biopsy to cognitive fusion-directed biopsy, suggesting that companies working in this space have a significant evidentiary lift in front of them.

Researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital have demonstrated that a machine learning-based model enables medical institutions to predict mortality risk for individual cardiac surgery patients.

Biosency SA's Bora Care remote monitoring solution can predict acute chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations on average three days prior to hospitalization, according to initial results from an ongoing study. The results show that the technology can help prevent hospital admission and reduce the severity of acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD) leading to a better quality of life for COPD patients.