Visby Medical Inc. reeled in more than $100 million in a series E round led by Ping An Voyager Partners. The funds will be used to scale production capacity of Visby’s instrument-free, single-use real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) platform from tens to hundreds of thousands of tests per month.
The FDA has approved Medtronic plc’s next-generation sacral neuromodulation (SNM) system, Interstim X, giving patients a recharge-free option with a 10-year+ lifespan. This newest member of the Interstim portfolio joins the rechargeable Interstim Micro as a treatment for overactive bladder (OAB), chronic fecal incontinence (FI) and nonobstructive urinary retention.
Quris Technologies Ltd. has inked an agreement with Merck KGaA to assess its BioAI safety prediction platform. The partnership will compare the Quris’ artificial intelligence (AI)-based platform with traditional in vivo and in vitro approaches of evaluating drug safety concerns.
Know Labs Inc. has received approval from an independent institutional review board for an internal clinical study of its noninvasive glucose monitoring technology. The aim is to further validate the Bio-RFID (radio frequency identification) platform’s ability to accurately measure and detect changes in blood glucose levels. The study will be conducted at the Seattle-based company’s new research and development laboratory and include 200 subjects.
Galvani Bioelectronics Ltd. reported the first patient implanted with its experimental direct splenic nerve stimulation therapy for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The first-in-human implant is part of a small trial at the NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde Health Board in Scotland.
Akili Interactive Inc. is the latest in a growing field of med-tech startups that are merging with special purpose acquisition companies as a backdoor path to an initial public offering. On Wednesday, the digital medicine company reported plans to combine with Social Capital Suvretta Holdings Corp. I in a deal valued at approximately $1 billion.
Each year, more than 250,000 Americans undergo sinus surgery to treat a range of nose and sinus complaints. Full recovery can take several weeks, during which patients typically use opioids to treat their postoperative pain. Given the risk of opioid addiction, Tivic Health Systems Inc. is testing a bioelectronic device that offers an alternative to potent narcotics following sinus surgery.
Medtronic plc released initial results showing meaningful pain relief using differential target multiplexed (DTM) spinal cord stimulation (SCS) endurance therapy, a lower-energy form of its DTM SCS treatment for overall, back or leg pain. At three months, patients in the on-label, prospective, multicenter study reported that their overall pain was about half what it was at the start of the study, measured by a 3.9 cm reduction on the 10 cm Visual Analog Scale (VAS) vs. 7.8 cm at baseline. Patients in the study also reported an average decrease in back and leg pain or 4.3 cm and 5.0 cm, respectively. Medtronic plans to offer the DTM SCS endurance therapy on its rechargeable Intellis and primary cell Vanta platforms.
Point-of-care (POC) diagnostics startup Chronus Health Inc. reeled in $22 million in a series A round led by Tarsadia Investments. The company plans to use the funds to scale its research, engineering and data science teams and hasten product and technology development. Monta Vista Capital, Sosv and Savantus Ventures also participated in the financings, along with an unidentified strategic investor.
Space travel has known effects on human health and biology. Some, such as loss of bone density, are well understood, while others, like inflammation, are not. Now, organ-on-a-chip maker Emulate Inc. is conducting experiments on the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory (ISS-NL) aimed at revealing clues to how the brain functions in microgravity.
