Exoskeleton company Wandercraft SAS has landed $45 million in a series C round led by U.S. fund Quadrant Management. The company’s first commercial exoskeleton, Atalante, received CE marking in 2019 and has sold for around $176,000 a piece to European rehabilitation hospitals offering gait re-learning treatment.
With the agreement to purchase Physimax Technologies Ltd. in its rearview mirror, Dariohealth Corp. passes another milestone with its third tuck-in deal in a year. Physimax, a provider of computer vision technology for musculoskeletal (MSK) screening and predictive risk assessment, joins Psyinnovations Inc. (dba Wayforward) and Upright Technologies Ltd. as tuck-ins for the rapidly growing digital health company. The latest deal is by far the smallest. The terms call for the issuance of 256,660 shares of Dariohealth’s common stock, valued at Wednesday’s closing price of $9.65 per share at just under $2.5 million, plus a cash payment of $500,000.
A homegrown company in Pakistan has developed a multi-grip bionic arm that aims to mimic the movement of real limbs while costing a fraction of what prosthetic arms normally cost. Anas Niaz and Ovais Qurshi founded Karachi-based Bioniks Pte. Ltd. in 2018 to developed efficient and low-cost robotic prosthetic limbs.
PARIS – A team of researchers from the Université Grenoble Alpes, France, has been working on X-ray phase-contrast imaging (PCI) for investigating osteoarthritis. The team at the Inserm Synchrotron Radiation for Biomedicine (Strobe) laboratory in Grenoble, France has spent the last five years working with Grenoble-based firm Novitom SAS on this new imaging modality for osteoarticular conditions.
Bioventus Inc. has received FDA 510(k) clearance for a device that enables surgeons to remove bone in hard-to-work spaces during minimally invasive surgery. It acquired the company that developed the tool, Great Neck, N.Y.-based Misonix Inc., in October.
Movendo Technology srl and Maragal Medical PC have collaborated to provide free community screening for the risk of falls for Massachusetts Medicare patients using Movendo’s Hunova robotic technology. Hunova performs a progressive assessment on seated and standing patients to evaluate their flexibility, strength and balance. The system also provides personalized rehabilitative therapy recommendations.
Theradaptive Inc. has received an FDA breakthrough medical device (BMD) designation for its Osteo-Adapt SP spinal fusion implant for transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion to treat degenerative disc disease, spondylolisthesis, or retrolisthesis. Under the program Theradaptive will enjoy priority review for its spinal bone growth implant and interactive advice for continued development as well as clinical trial protocols during premarket review.
Medimaps Group SA has landed $20 million to expand its portfolio of bone health imaging software. The round was led by Swisscanto Invest, the asset management arm of the Zürcher Kantonalbank group, with participation from the Swiss Entrepreneurs Fund, Swisscom Ventures, and Verve Ventures. The company’s flagship product TBS (trabecular bone score) Insight is an artificial intelligence-powered medical software which provides information on bone quality from routine DXA and X-ray images.
Sword Health Technologies Inc. slipped another $189 million into its coffers with an oversubscribed $163 million series D fundraising round that spilled into an additional $26 million secondary transaction. The enthusiasm for the round points to the keen interest in digital delivery of musculoskeletal (MSK) physical therapy, which has driven Sword and competitor Hinge Health Inc. both into rarified unicorn territory with valuations of $2 billion and $6.2 billion, respectively.
Medical science has not yet convincingly duplicated the remarkable properties of cartilage, an omission that sustains an epidemic of life-altering knee replacement surgeries. Anthony Ratcliffe, CEO of Synthasome Inc., of Del Mar, Calif., said on a recent FDA webinar that companies might want to consider the lowly goat as the animal model of choice in preclinical studies of cartilage products because “the cost, ease of management, and the social aspects were all manageable” with goats.