Qiagen NV added to its growing roster of panels cleared by the U.S. FDA in 2024 with the agency’s nod for its Qiastat-Dx Meningitis/Encephalitis assay. The clearance validates Qiagen’s strategy of developing rapid tests specifically for the U.S. market and builds on the respiratory, gastrointestinal and central nervous system tests already available.

Medicare coverage of digital mental health therapies has traditionally been lacking, but the final Medicare physician fee schedule for 2025 added three new codes to deal with the coverage gap.

While the inpatient and outpatient final rules for 2025 are baked into the U.S. Medicare payment system, there are indications that Congress will consider legislation that would flatten rates across sites of service.

The U.S. FDA reported a class I recall of tracheostomy tube kits by Minneapolis-based Smiths Medical Inc., because of the risk of separation of the tube’s pilot balloon and inflation line.

The U.S. Medicare outpatient final rule affirms several new devices for the new technology pass-through program, but one of the more significant findings is that CMS will use separate payment mechanisms for two renal nerve denervation devices, following the blueprint the agency employed for this question in the inpatient final rule.

The drug and device industries have a lot hinging on the results of the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential and congressional elections. Tax policies. The reach of the FTC. Legislation aimed at drug prices, competition, pharmacy benefit managers and lab-developed tests. Cabinet and agency appointments that could reshape Medicare drug negotiations, the 340B program, FDA Orange Book device patent listings, regulatory flexibility and Bayh-Dole march-ins. And that’s just the top of the list.

Cell and gene therapy companies are the beneficiaries of positive changes along the regulatory path that the U.S. FDA is paving for them, according to a panel of executives who spoke at the BioFuture 2024 conference in New York.

Abionic SA received U.S. FDA 510(k) clearance for its in vitro diagnostic Capsule pancreatic stone protein (PSP) sepsis test. Produced by the pancreas and immune cells, PSP provides an early biomarker for sepsis that could push back detection of deadly condition by 24 to 48 hours.

GT Metabolic Solutions Inc. received U.S. FDA clearance for its Magdi bariatric surgery system. The system uses magnets to create side-to-side duodeno-ileal anastomosis without cutting intestinal tissue or leaving foreign materials in the body permanently.

Ngenebio Co. Ltd. launched a precision diagnostic panel called Oncoaccupanel RNA in South Korea Oct. 29 as a test to detect oncogenic fusion genes commonly found in solid tumors.