Baxter International Inc., of Deerfield, Ill., has entered an agreement to acquire Seprafilm adhesion barrier and related assets from Paris-based Sanofi SA. The expected price at closing is $350 million, with the transaction anticipated to wrap up in the first quarter of 2020. Read More
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), also known as diastolic heart failure, accounts for roughly half of all heart failure cases worldwide. The condition, which occurs when the ventricles do not relax as they fill with blood following heart muscle contractions, is especially common in elderly women, striking up to 10% of those over 80 years old. Now stem cell biotech firm Novoheart Holdings Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, is partnering with Astrazeneca plc, of Cambridge, U.K., to co-develop a human-specific in vitro, functional model of HFpEF. The goal is to give drug researchers critical clues of a drug candidate’s efficacy before it is tested in patients. Read More
The Medicare coverage memo for next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS) was reopened to allow for NGS testing for other than late-stage cancers, but stakeholders are urging the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to allow repeat testing, another change that would considerably boost utilization. Read More
HONG KONG – Neurophet Inc., a South Korean AI-based brain disease diagnostics company, has secured ₩6 billion (US$5.1 million) in series A funding. The med-tech startup produces solutions based on Segengine, the company’s own technology that automatically segments brain magnetic resonance (MR) images into 107 regions within a minute. Read More
A study published in the Nov. 27, 2019, advance online issue of Nature manages a rare feat. It is both a vindication of and egg in the face for cardiac stem cell research. Read More
The offices of BioWorld MedTech were closed in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. No issues were published Thursday, Nov. 28, or Friday, Nov. 29. Read More
