Med-tech happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Aesthetic Medical, Magle, Owkin, Sirtex, Tribun Health.
In a potential breakthrough for diagnosis and treatment development of liver disease, the Biomarkers Consortium’s Noninvasive Biomarkers of Metabolic Liver Disease (NIMBLE) project demonstrated that a blood test could diagnose nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), an increasingly common liver disease in the U.S. The study, published in Nature Medicine, identified four biomarkers that outperform current liquid biopsies for NASH.
Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTC) for medical devices does not present the same policy footprint as DTC ads for drugs, but Congress recently asked the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate device advertising to evaluate whether reforms are needed. GAO responded to the effect that while the literature lacks any useful studies on the question, some stakeholders believe that DTC device ads give short shrift to risk information, a finding that may prompt Congress to enact new legislation on the question.
Gradient Denervation Technologies SAS closed a €14 million (US$15 million) series A financing round that will help the company with the ongoing clinical development and evaluation of its ultrasound-based catheter device to treat pulmonary hypertension. The financing round was led by Asabys Partners, with participation from Thuja Capital and founding investor Sofinnova Partners.
Japan’s Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) has jumped on board the e-consent train for clinical trials, publishing a guidance for the use of electronic means for obtaining a study participant’s informed consent.
China’s recovery from its zero-COVID policy has failed to gain the momentum expected, with many experts predicting a slow or even negative growth rate. A slower economy, combined with a push toward self-reliance, bodes poorly for diagnostics manufacturers in the U.S. who may find themselves not just shut out of the huge market but facing stiffer competition around the globe. Further, policies designed to build a domestic next-generation sequencing industry have created headwinds for San Diego-based Illumina Inc. and others, noted Kyle Mikson and Alex Vukasin of Canaccord Genuity in an in-depth report.
Amsterdam-based Royal Philips NV reported that it has come to terms with customers and end users of its respiratory equipment to the tune of $479 million, which will reimburse for the cost of these systems. The problem for the company is that the settlement does not affect any personal injury cases, and thus represents only a partial closure of a controversy that has dogged the company for several years.
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