HONG KONG – Celltrion Inc. has received the European CE mark for Tekitrust, its COVID-19 tests kit developed with Mico Biomed Co. Ltd. “Mico, which is a diagnostic device specialist, partnered with Celltrion to combine both companies’ strengths in the test kit sector,” a Celltrion spokesperson told BioWorld. Mico will manufacture the kits, while Celltrion handles marketing and sales.
Ceribell Inc. amassed $53 million in a series C fundraising round to broaden the footprint for its noninvasive brain monitor in U.S. hospitals and expand indications for its Rapid Response EEG. Longitude Capital and The Rise Fund led the round.
TORONTO – Opsens Inc. has inked an agreement with Madrid, Spain’s Cathmedical Cardiovascular SA to integrate its coronary physiology algorithms with the Spanish firm’s next generation hemodynamic system, notably Opsens’ diastolic pressure ratio (DPR) for measuring diastolic heart pressure.
PERTH, Australia – After gaining European clearance for its Eugeni COVID-19 rapid antigen test, Anteotech Ltd. reported a A$12 million (US$9.3 million) capital raise to launch its first global product that will help screen travelers, making it easier and safer to open borders. The Brisbane, Australia-based company was largely unheard of before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, but it has emerged as one of the few companies that has developed a low-cost, high sensitivity rapid COVID-19 test.
Keeping you up to date on recent developments in diagnostics, including: Urine test could reduce prostate cancer biopsies; Neurons forget who they are in Alzheimer’s disease; Sensor can predict hallucinogenic serotonin receptor effects.
HONG KONG – Researchers at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) have developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-based system for the automated, rapid and accurate detection of COVID-19 infections in chest computed tomography (CT) images. The system can provide immediate results, without the need for clinicians to interpret images. It could be potentially used in radiology imaging departments in hospitals.
CMS has posted the draft Medicare inpatient rule for fiscal year 2022, replete with the usual controversies over reassignment of procedures under the Medicare diagnostic grouping system. One bit of good news is that the agency may carry over several expired new technology add-on payments (NTAPs) into the coming fiscal year, a move prompted by the difficulty of collecting claims data from fiscal year 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Castle Biosciences Inc. deepened the moat around its position in melanoma diagnostics with the acquisition of Myriad Mypath LLC from Myriad Genetics Inc. The acquisition gives Castle (NASDAQ:CSTL) the Myriad Mypath Laboratory in Salt Lake City where the Mypath Melanoma 23-gene expression profile (GEP) test is owned and offered. Mypath Melanoma joins Castle's Decisiondx Diffdx-Melanoma, enabling Castle to provide comprehensive molecular testing for difficult-to-diagnose melanocytic lesions.
TORONTO – Breath analytics technology developed by Picomole Inc. and University of New Brunswick (UNB) researchers promises to identify lung cancer long before it reaches the most advanced stages of the disease. Machine learning sits at the heart of the system, evaluating raw spectral data from a patient’s breath for early diagnosis of lung cancer, Steve Graham, CEO of Moncton, New Brunswick-based Picomole, told BioWorld.
A study led by Chinese radiologists at Peking University in Beijing has shown that positron emission tomography imaging of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) expression is a predictor for the abscopal effect, whereby nonirradiated cancers respond to radiotherapy.