More than 100 million people worldwide are thought to have post-acute COVID-19 syndrome, roughly 40% of everyone on the planet who’s had COVID. Now, thousands of them are beginning to cycle through clinical and preclinical studies designed to get a better look at this little understood aspect of the pandemic.
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.
Wall Street nicked shares of Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc. after the firm offered top-line results from the 263-subject phase III study with Xpovio (selinexor) in advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer (EC). Shares (NASDAQ:KPTI) closed at $8.19, down $2.05, or 20%, having dropped as low as $7.66.
Scientists from Healthbiocare GmbH, System Biologie AG and the University of Austria have published data indicating pan-cancer detection could be achieved by combining genetic and epigenetic biomarkers in plasma. The scientists developed a classification model that distinguished between healthy subjects and patients with solid tumors with 95.4% accuracy, 97.9% sensitivity, and 80% specificity.
LONDON – Three patients with complete spinal cord injury are able to walk independently after having specialized electrodes implanted below their lesions. The details were published in Nature Medicine on Feb. 7. This is a significant new milestone for the researchers at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, who in 2018 delivered proof that electrical stimulation can reactivate spinal neurons, in that case in three patients with partial spinal cord injury. “Here for the first time, we have developed purpose-made technology in order to precisely stimulate the spinal cord to restore movement after paralysis,” said Gregoire Courtine, professor of spinal cord repair at EPFL.
The pivotal, multicenter trial commissioned by Envveno Medical Corp. is intended to show its first-in-class Venovalve implant is safe and effective for treating deep venous chronic venous insufficiency (CVI), which occurs when damaged valves inside the veins of the leg prevent blood from flowing up the leg and into the heart and lungs.
San Francisco-based startup Mirvie Inc. has released data demonstrating how its RNA platform technology can predict preterm birth. The research, presented at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine 42nd Annual Pregnancy Meeting (SMFM 2022), showed the company’s test predicted the condition months before symptoms occurred and identified biological pathways that drive changes in pregnancy.
Bionomics Ltd.’s U.S. debut last December, when the firm raised about $23 million through the sale of American depositary shares, called new attention to the Australian firm and its prospects in social anxiety disorder (SAD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Citing potential confounding factors, Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. is hoping further analysis might explain the top-line miss for its phase III study testing tradipitant in gastroparesis, hinting that regulatory submissions could still be in the offing. Investors, unsurprisingly, were less optimistic, sending shares of the Washington-based company (NASDAQ:VNDA) down nearly 18% to close Feb. 4 at $12.03.
University of Edinburgh spinoff Biocaptiva Ltd. is taking its cell free DNA (cfDNA) capture device to clinical trials in 2022 following promising preclinical results. The company’s platform technology is designed to increase the quantity of cfDNA available for liquid biopsy testing. Current liquid biopsy practices obtain cfDNA via a venous blood draw but the concentration of tumor-derived ctDNA can be too low for comprehensive testing. Biocaptiva’ device emerged from research at the University of Edinburgh investigating liquid biopsy technologies.