Cue Health Inc. became the first company to offer COVID-19 molecular testing for home use without a prescription following U.S. FDA emergency use authorization on March 5, 2021. The San Diego-based company’s isothermal nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) detects RNA from SARS-CoV-2 virus present in the nostrils. “The FDA continues to prioritize the availability of more at-home testing options in response to the pandemic,” said Jeff Shuren, director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health. “Cue COVID-19 Test for Home and Over-the-Counter (OTC) Use provides access to accurate and reliable testing at-home, without a prescription.”
Neurolief Ltd. received FDA clearance for its Relivion system for home treatment of acute migraine. The noninvasive multichannel brain neuromodulation system, worn as a headset, stimulates the occipital and trigeminal nerves.
Bionaut Labs emerged from five years in stealth mode raising $20 million to develop Bionauts, microrobots designed to deliver therapies to treat brain disorders. The financing will support the company’s therapeutic program in glioma through preclinical development and further research and development in Huntington’s disease.
Bionaut Labs emerged from five years in stealth mode raising $20 million to develop Bionauts, microrobots designed to deliver therapies to treat brain disorders. The financing will support the company’s therapeutic program in glioma through preclinical development and further research and development in Huntington’s disease. Khosla Ventures led the financing with participation by Upfront Ventures, Revolution LLC, BOLD Capital Partners, and Compound.
Agilent Technologies Inc. will acquire Resolution Bioscience Inc. for $550 million in cash at closing and up to an additional $145 million based on performance milestones. The deal will expand Agilent’s cancer diagnostics offerings and its presence in next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology for the fast-growing precision medicine market. The acquisition is expected to close in April 2021.
Rebus Biosystems Inc. introduced the first commercially available spatial omics platform at the Advances in Genome Biology and Technology virtual meeting on March 1. The Rebus Esper builds on the company’s Synthetic Aperture Optics (SAO) technology that enables rapid quantitative analysis of tens of millions of cellular features across hundreds of thousands of cells in their native tissue contexts.
Big name investors think January AI Inc. is onto something sweet with its breakthrough diabetes management technology. Investors added $8.8 million to the company's finances, bringing its total capital raised to date to $21 million. Felicis Ventures, which previously invested in Fitbit and Modern Health, joined Hand Capital and Marc Benioff in the latest round.
If Marvel’s Peter Parker had chosen to apply his graduate work in biochemistry and his web-shooters to medicine, he might have created something like Nanomedic Technologies Ltd.’s Spincare system. The system uses a hand-held medical gun that prints a flexible, transparent layer of artificial skin directly on a wound or burn. The Electrospun Healing Fiber (EHF) technology creates a waterproof, protective nano polymer matrix.
The National Institutes of Health selected Pixcell Medical Ltd.’s Hemoscreen hematology analyzer as part of the six-year Risk Underlying Rural Areas Longitudinal (RURAL) research study, aiming to gain insight into the specific health-related concerns of the rural southeastern United States' population. The RURAL study is funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and aims to understand health concerns specific to rural communities in the South, particularly related to increased rates of heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders.
"Step up, speak up" could be the next mantra for COVID-19 screening at airports, universities and large employers if Vocalis Health Inc.'s screening tool takes off – and its recent CE mark approval makes that more likely. Vocalis reported that a large study found the tool, which uses AI-powered vocal biomarkers, had greater than 80% sensitivity and specificity, even in asymptomatic individuals.
