It was one of the largest med-tech deals of the year. However, Qiagen NV shareholders were apparently not satisfied by Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.’s offer, with the voluntary public takeover bid not achieving the minimum 66.67% acceptance threshold. A total of 47% of the outstanding Qiagen shares were tendered into the offer of €43 (US$50.95) at the expiration of the acceptance period Aug. 10. Read More
The COVID-19 pandemic has exerted a massive effect on procedure volumes across the globe, but concerns over supply chains have prompted political officials in Washington to encourage domestic production of drugs. That approach is also in play in a number of nations in the Asia-Pacific region, said Sana Siddiqui of Decision Resources Group, who noted that Beijing wants hospitals in China to ensure that 70% of devices used there are domestically manufactured by 2025. Read More
Tech-enabled diabetes and chronic conditions management company Cecelia Health has secured $13 million in a series B financing led by Rittenhouse Ventures and Endo Investors. Other participants in the round included Boston Millennia Partners, SustainVC and G100 Capital. The funds will be used to speed and further scale adoption of the company’s coaching and telemedicine tools and to build out digital health capabilities. Read More
Immunoscape Ltd. closed an $11 million global equity financing round led by U.S.-based venture firm Anzu Partners along with University of Tokyo Edge Capital in Japan, and Indonesia's NPR Holdings. The company plans to use the funds to ramp up its immune profiling technology platform, which performs deep T-cell analysis, and expand partnerships to develop vaccines for COVID-19 and other viruses as well as targeted oncology therapies. Read More
Two decades after the federal government jumpstarted U.S. R&D investment in its understanding and control of nanoscale matter, funding for the efforts across the government reached about $1.4 billion in fiscal 2020, part of a total cumulative investment of about $29 billion. Though FDA-budgeted nanotech research has accounted for just a fraction of that, at a modest $133 million since 2009, substantial advances have still been made, according to a presentation on the state of nanotech progress and innovation issued this summer. Read More
Amid all the political positioning, finger-pointing, blame games and mountains of misinformation that have been as much a part of the COVID-19 pandemic as the coronavirus itself, there’s one point of agreement: The pandemic has been a painful experience that everyone needs to learn from so it’s not repeated in the future. Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including global submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: 4D Molecular Therapeutics, Bayer, Hyperfine, Inmode, Osprey Medical, Quidel, RapidAI, Spectronrx. Read More
Keeping you up to date on recent developments in diagnostics, including: GEP tests poor predictors of melanoma recurrence; A nonfasting blood test for diabetes; Starving out Chlamydia. Read More
