Heru Inc. has raised $30 million in a series A financing to support the further development of its artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled, wearable eye diagnostic and vision correction platform. D1 Capital Partners led the round, with participation from Softbank Ventures Opportunity Fund, Maurice Ferre, Frederic Moll, Krillion Ventures and a consortium of investors with expertise in developing, launching and scaling medical technologies. Read More

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has updated its recommendations for lung cancer screening, which expands the age group for screening to include those aged 50-54 years. The change has forced CMS to reopen the national coverage memo for low-dose CT screening for lung cancer, which appears to be set to add millions to the number of Americans who are eligible for annual screening procedures. Read More

As infections and deaths continue to surge in some countries so does the demand for unfettered access to the technologies behind COVID-19 vaccines and other medical products. In seeking that access, several countries are stressing the need to develop their own manufacturing capacity as they look beyond the current pandemic. Read More

TORONTO – Startup company Stoko Inc. has raised C$6 million (US$4.74 million) in seed funding to accelerate market expansion of a device it said will give rigid knee braces a run for their money. Read More

The tech sector's high profile march into life sciences, from Alphabet Inc.'s Verily to IBM Corp.'s Watson, hasn't always been smooth. Successes, such as Exscientia Ltd. and Benevolentai Ltd., have almost universally emerged from within the biopharma sector rather than without. Now Palantir Technologies Inc., a data analysis specialist known best for its counterterrorism and defense work, is looking to bridge the gap with an artificial intelligence platform it is billing as an "operating system" for health care and other companies. Read More

New hires and promotions in the med-tech industry, including: Beyond Air, Global Wholehealth, Harvard Medtech, Myriad Genetics, Perahealth, Xenter. Read More

Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Angle, Biospectal, Cardiovascular Systems, Gala Therapeutics, Limflow, Nanopin Technologies, Natera, Sorrento, Veracyte. Read More

Med-tech happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Acupath Laboratories, Advanced Human Imaging, Carestream Health, Caris Life Sciences, Essenlix, Haliodx, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Labcorp, Max Pharma, Micron Medical, Recuro Health, Roche, Supdoc, Test Today USA, Xphyto. Read More

Regulatory snapshots, including global submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Axonics, Hologic, Intersect ENT. Read More