The U.K.’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has given people looking to lose weight another treatment option by recommending endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty (ESG) as a therapy to help treat obesity. The move comes amidst increasing awareness of the disease brought on by the growing prevalence of GLP-1 agonists.
The €173 million (US$187 million) in capital that Earlybird Health recently raked in from investors will go towards bolstering investment in European health care startups, many of which are still recovering from the impact of COVID-19, Thom Rasche, a partner at Earlybird Health, told BioWorld. The fund is looking to invest in the technologies that can improve patient care.
Through its intellectual property holding company, Eindhoven, the Netherlands-based Bambi Medical BV is seeking patent protection for an enhancement to its flexible sensor belt that is worn around the abdomen for monitoring the vital signs of neonates.
Inventiva SA has halted enrollment in its pivotal phase III Nativ3 trial with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) candidate lanifibranor after a patient experienced raised liver enzymes indicative of autoimmune hepatitis. The resulting delays to the study could spell trouble for the firm, which estimates its cash runway will only see it through to the start of the third quarter 2024.
Venture capital (VC) firm TVM Capital Life Science recently co-led a $16 million series A financing for Vektor Medical Inc., which has developed an AI-based tool that identifies potential arrhythmia source locations. The funding is part of TVM’s strategy of investing in med-tech companies which have no development risk and offer an exit opportunity in under four years.
Body: The U.K.’s Medicines and Health Care Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has a program designed to facilitate more rapid market access for medical devices of urgent need, and now the agency has put money into the policy.
The European Commission approved two therapies for progressive, genetic diseases: Biogen Inc.’s Friedreich’s ataxia drug, Skyclarys (omaveloxolone), and Crispr Therapeutics AG’s CRISPR/Cas9 gene therapy for sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia, Casgevy (exagamglogene autotemcel, exa-cel).
Insulet Corp. received the greenlight from EU regulators to combine its Omnipod 5 automated insulin delivery (AID) system with Abbott Laboratories Freestyle Libre 2 Plus sensor to treat individuals aged two years and older with type 1 diabetes.
Medicxi is spinning six of its early stage companies into an immuno-dermatology specialist and turbocharging development with a $100 million seed round.
Toku Inc. recently obtained CE and UKCA marks for its artificial intelligence (AI) technology, Clair, which evaluates the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) using retinal images captured during an eye exam.