Since its launch in the U.S. in April, Biolab Sciences Inc.’s Dermistat has facilitated the healing of 80 wounds using its unusual gel-graft formula. The product transforms a patient’s skin cells into a partial thickness skin graft in 48 hours and a full-thickness graft in five to seven days. The autologous graft material speeds recovery following surgery or burns and helps to resolve non-healing wounds.
Nuralogix Corp. has trained machine learning models to interpret blood flow patterns in facial scans to predict whether an individual has prediabetes. The model runs on a smartphone app, which could increase awareness of the risk of developing diabetes in a significant portion of the population.
Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) signaling to intraepithelial lymphocyte (IEL) cells in the gut, where most GLP-1 is made, was important for inflammation in the gut itself, but less so for systemic inflammation.
Second Sight Medical Products Inc. completed a reverse merger with Nano Precision Medical Inc. which leaves the controversial visual prosthetics company holding 23% of the new company, now called Vivani Medical Inc. The deal brings together two unlikely partners, with Nano Precision targeting development of miniaturized, subdermal drug implants for chronic diseases such as diabetes, while Second Sight has focused on bringing its Orion visual prosthetic device to market. The company now trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol VANI.
Cue Health Inc. rolled out a same-day, at-home, test-to-treatment program through its Cue Health app for any patient in the U.S. with a positive result from its COVID-19 test. The service includes a virtual, on-demand visit with a health care professional to discuss the test result; a prescription for medication to treat the virus, if appropriate; and home delivery of the medication, typically within hours of the visit. Medications may also be made available for pickup at a local pharmacy.
The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Inc. has joined forces with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to screen pathogens, toxins and diseases using its high-throughput organ-chip devices. As part of a concerted effort to develop new medical countermeasures against biological and chemical threats, organs-on-a-chip provide directly applicable insights into human responses and enable testing on organs developed from a diverse pool of live donors prior to human trials.
Endometriosis affects one in 10 women, but diagnosis of this fertility impairing, and often painful condition often takes a decade. A growing number of companies hope to put women with the condition on the path to treatment much sooner with new diagnostics and investors, investigators and regulators see bright opportunities in the field.
The U.S. FDA granted breakthrough device designation to startup Brainspec Inc. for its non-invasive virtual brain biopsy system. The company uses standard magnetic resonance imaging equipment to measure brain chemistry rather than to create images, providing a more detailed view of pathophysiology involved in a range of neurological disorders.
Teleflex Inc. is going big on its investment in the business of helping people reduce their size with an agreement to acquire Standard Bariatrics Inc. for an upfront cash payment of $170 million with contingent payments of $130 million upon achievement of specified commercial milestones. The companies expect to close the transaction early in the fourth quarter of 2022. Standard Bariatrics produces a novel clamp and staple system for gastric sleeve surgery, the Titan sleeve gastrectomy stapler (SGS).
Precision Diabetes Inc. (PDI) entered an exclusive agreement with Dxgen Corp. to introduce and distribute the Epithod Autodx point-of-care analyzer and multiple diabetes tests that run on the system within the U.S. The first available tests will include hemoglobin A1c, C-reactive protein and albumin, with the portfolio of tests expected to grow quickly.
