Body: The U.K.’s Medicines and Health Care Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has a program designed to facilitate more rapid market access for medical devices of urgent need, and now the agency has put money into the policy.
The Royal Academy of Engineering in the U.K. has revealed a new batch of 70 entrepreneurs, including some developers of med-tech solutions, for its Leaders in Innovation Fellowships Global (LIF Global) program. This comes just two months after the LIF Advance edition of the initiative, which had 15 chosen. The selected entrepreneurs will receive equity-free support over the next six months from the training and mentorship program.
The need to develop advanced medical technologies is ever increasing, and one incubator is on a mission to identify the world’s most promising opportunities. In cooperation with partners including Israel Innovation Authority, Israeli incubator Medx Xelerator LP is expanding a portfolio of startups that are attacking some of health care’s biggest challenges.
PERTH, Australia – Australia should be at the front of the line among developed nations when it comes to innovative drugs and devices, but health policies must evolve to respond to changes in technology and global trends, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) said. Although Australia’s health policy has served the country well, tensions in the system are becoming seismic shifts that mirror international trends, J&J said in a recent report on Australia’s health system.
Pharmaceutical companies in China will cut the prices for more than five dozen drugs by an average of 61.7% to get them on the latest version of the country’s National Drug Reimbursement List. The National Healthcare Security Administration released the new list on Dec. 3, 2021. The new list includes 74 new drugs, the vast majority of which are branded products without generic versions in China. Only seven of the new drugs on the list have generic versions.
Medical device accelerator Medtech Innovator and the Asia Pacific Medical Technology Association (Apacmed) have selected Opharmic Technology (HK) Ltd. as the grand prize winner of its Asia Pacific Accelerator program. Opharmic has developed a noninvasive ultrasound platform technology for a variety of biomedical applications, with eye drug delivery being one of the key applications.
With the support of Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB), Medtronic plc has launched the Medtronic Open Innovation Platform (OIP) in Singapore to develop med-tech and digital health solutions for Asia Pacific. The company will invest up to $50 million for this venture.
Sure H.R. 3 could save the U.S. government hundreds of billions of dollars on drug spending, but that savings comes at a long-term cost in innovation that’s higher than the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) initially forecast.
DUBLIN – Panakès Partners SGR SpA has raised €150 million (US$177 million) in a first close of its second fund and is looking to secure a final tally of €180 million by year-end. That would represent more than twice the size of its first fund of €80 million and reflects its move into therapeutics investing.
LONDON – There has been a lukewarm reception from the industry to the latest developments in the plan to establish a European health technology assessment (HTA) agency, with concerns from pharma that member states will be able to pick and choose whether to apply joint evaluations in national reimbursement and access negotiations.