Investors ate up the opportunity to be part of Gemelli Biotech Corp.’s series A funding round, which raised $19 million to support the company’s growth and expand access to its diagnostic tests for gastrointestinal (GI) diseases. Blue Ox Healthcare Partners led the round with founding investor Cedars-Sinai and support from Carolina Angel Network, Cerracap Ventures and several family offices.
Humacyte Inc. provided its Human Acellular Vessel (HAV) implants to Ukrainian hospitals on the front-line of the Russian invasion as part of the company’s humanitarian relief initiative. Two patients have received the implants for treatment of vascular trauma injuries. One patient had sustained a severe gunshot wound to the leg and the other was injured by shrapnel.
A presentation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2022 annual conference demonstrated that the Dxcover Cancer Liquid Biopsy differentiated between patients with cancer and healthy controls and detected more than 90% of stage I malignancies across a broad range of cancers. Dxcover Ltd. provided more details on its new approach to the search for reliable, rapid screening for multiple malignancies at the 12th International Conference on Clinical Spectroscopy on June 21.
Prognomiq Inc. secured access to 800,000 anonymized biological samples for analysis and detection of dynamic cancer biomarkers as part of a new partnership struck with Kahn-Sagol-Maccabi (KSM), the research and innovation center of Maccabi Healthcare Services, Israel’s largest health maintenance organization. The partnership will enable the creation of a biomarker platform the organizations hope will facilitate early diagnosis and improved outcomes for cancer patients using Prognomiq’s multiomics platform.
Microtransponder Inc. raked in $53 million in an oversubscribed series E round that exceeded its best previous fundraising by nearly 500% and brought the company’s total funds raised to date to $93 million. The new money will be used to commercialize the Vivistim paired VNS system, which received premarket approval in 2021 as what the FDA called the “first stroke rehabilitation option using vagus nerve stimulation.”
Aerin Medical Inc.’s funding nosed up to $190.5 million with its latest venture capital round, which brought in $60 million in fresh cash. The provider of noninvasive solutions for chronic nasal conditions plans to use the funds to ramp up commercialization and expand market access to its Vivaer and Rhinaer products. New investor Ally Bridge Group led the round with support from returning major investors KCK Medtech, Questa Capital and Orbimed.
In May, Sidekick Health AB revealed an expanded partnership with New York-based Pfizer Inc. for autoimmune-related conditions. Now, it has joined forces with Eli Lilly and Co. to help patients battling breast cancer with its gamified platform. The companies plan to introduce the integrated digital therapeutic starting in July with the roll out beginning in Germany.
Outset Medical Inc. dropped 38% during intraday trading to reach its lowest point since going public in mid-2020 following its announcement that it began holding shipments of its Tablo hemodialysis system for home use in late May pending U.S. FDA clearance of a 510(k) submission for changes made to the device since its original clearance in March 2020. The stock which closed June 13 at $20.43, recovered some ground to close June 15 at $14.58, which is still 78% off the stock’s high in November 2020.
Ekso Bionics Holdings Inc. added a new indication for its robotic Eksonr exoskeleton with a U.S. FDA 510(k) clearance for use of the mobility device in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The green light for MS follows clearances for stroke and spinal cord rehabilitation in 2016 and acquired brain injury (ABI) in 2020.
Bipolar disorder (BPD) is disabling, destructive and notoriously difficult to diagnose. Research indicates that up to 40% of patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder or unipolar depression actually have BPD and treating them with antidepressants alone runs an elevated risk of worsening their condition. But the issue is not one-sided: other studies found that 30% to 60% of patients diagnosed with BPD do not meet the clinical criteria for the illness and may be taking powerful mood stabilizers needlessly while failing to receive potentially beneficial therapies.
