The Cooper Companies Inc. plans to acquire the entirety of Cook Medical Inc.’s reproductive health business in this fiscal quarter for $675 million at closing plus $200 million paid in four $50 million annual installments. The acquisition will expand Cooper’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region. The Cook deal will also accelerate Cooper’s labor and delivery medical device efforts by adding 115 people sales, marketing, education and support staff globally.Read More
Johnson & Johnson business Cerenovus Inc. is launching a balloon guide catheter for the U.S. and Canada stroke market. The Irvine, Calif.-based company’s Emboguard device is designed to remove blood clots by controlling blood flow during mechanical thrombectomy procedures. It is the latest addition to the Cerenovus stroke portfolio, which includes the Embotrap III revascularization device, the Prowler EX microcatheter, the Cerenovus large bore catheter and Cerebase guide sheath. Read More
Witnesses at a Feb. 8 hearing in the U.S. Congress emphasized that the proposed Advanced Research Projects Agency – Health (ARPA-H) must be an independent agency to avoid a crippling case of bureaucratic torpor. However, several members of Congress and one of the witnesses made the case that ARPA-H would increase duplicative taxpayer spending without providing a commensurate increase in productive research in the life sciences, signaling that establishment of this new DARPA-like agency is anything but guaranteed. Read More
Know Labs Inc. has received approval from an independent institutional review board for an internal clinical study of its noninvasive glucose monitoring technology. The aim is to further validate the Bio-RFID (radio frequency identification) platform’s ability to accurately measure and detect changes in blood glucose levels. The study will be conducted at the Seattle-based company’s new research and development laboratory and include 200 subjects. Read More
Japanese researchers have created complex 3D kidney organoids that could lead the way to better kidney research and even artificial kidneys for human transplant. Read More
While a number of U.S. cities and towns have been conducting wastewater testing for the SARS-CoV-2 virus for some time, the CDC has finally established a dashboard for reporting the results of this surveillance. While the resulting data may be useful in the current pandemic for allocation of resources, the establishment of a network of wastewater surveillance instruments can also be instrumental in future public health efforts, such as tracking foodborne infections and detecting the emergence of new antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Read More
Med-tech happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Biocartis, BD, Blackrock Neurotech, Celloscope, Highland Sciences, Hyland Healthcare, Iterative Scopes, Kinomatic, Nano Precision Medical, Onestep, Ophiomics, Pfizer, Pulse Biosciences, Returnsafe, Second Sight, Sensifree, Syntheticmr, Tempus Labs. Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including global submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Atheart Medical, Carestream, Cerevasc. Read More