In Vitro Diagnostics

Octave Bioscience’s CEO Doug Biehn sat down with Medtech Insight at HTLH to talk about the company’s plans for expanding their multivariate biomarker blood test for MS analysis and development of a diagnostic for Parkinson’s disease.

In this week’s Digital Health Roundup, Medtech Insight’s Marion Webb talks about her interview with GE HealthCare’s chief AI officer Parminder Bhatia about his vision for AI in health care and other highlights from HLTH. Natasha Barrow discusses her interview with Owkin on the EU AI Act and highlights Click Therapeutics’ latest clinical results.

This week, HistoSonics announced it will bring its ultrasound system for destroying liver tumors into VA hospitals, Edwards Lifesciences reports encouraging TRISCEND II trial results at TCT, study finds blood test for CRC screening are less cost-effective than alternatives, and more.

University of Cambridge's soon-to-be spun-out Nimble Genomics is among grant-winning projects in Capital Enterprise's Cancer Tech Accelerator. Medtech Insight spoke to clinical oncologist and Nimble founder Henno Martin and co-founder Radek Lach to learn more what about the brain cancer blood test’s prospects in an increasingly competitive liquid biopsy space.

Clinical labs and diagnostics firms alike are still grappling with the likely impact of the FDA’s final rule on LDTs, speakers said in a recent webinar. Key areas of concern: The potential for lab consolidation, lack of clarity on when clearance is necessary, research-use tests, and the hesitation imposed by an ongoing lawsuit and upcoming election.

As the 6 May deadline to implement the FDA’s final rule on lab-developed tests approaches, attempts to stop the rule from taking effect are set to play out in court. A panel of experts discussed the potential impact of these legal efforts, should they be successful, at the Medtech Conference in Toronto.

The College of American Pathologists wants a US district court to scrap the FDA’s final rule that unilaterally assumes oversight of lab-developed tests, but not because the college feels the agency has no business regulating them. Helena Duncan, senior director of quality at CAP, explained the college’s position to Medtech Insight.

The European Parliament intends to send an official message to the European Commission to try and push for an early revision of the Medical Device Regulation.

Marabio Systems says the new funding will help accelerate efforts to bring a blood test to market in 2025 that will accurately determine if a mother is a carrier of antibodies that cause MARA, a subtype of autism that believe to cause more severe behavior.

The European Commission’s proposed timeframe for revising the MDR and IVDR is far too long, Parliament believes, and is resulting in increasingly outdated products in healthcare establishments around European threatening patient care.

Having 50 notified bodies under the Medical Device Regulation is a landmark achievement for the EU after a long and slow, journey to reach this point.

Just as manufacturers need to implement corrective and preventive action plans, so this is an essential part of how a notified body functions; new guidance explains how.

This week, Establishment Labs Holdings announced the FDA gave it premarket approval for Motiva breast implant, Cologuard lands FDA approval for Cologuard Plus and GE HealthCare gets FDA nod for a new imaging agent. The FDA announces another expansion for TAP into ophthalmology and radiology. The AAMI and CTA will join forces to develop standards for AI and ML-enabled health care products.  

The owner of a Chicago COVID-19 testing lab plead guilty to wire fraud for billing the government for COVID-19 tests that were not performed. Also, test developer Talis Biomedical agreed to pay $32.5m to settle a shareholder suit.

There is to be more rigorous testing from now on for high-risk IVDs. Measures are also in place to prevent device shortages during the transition to new rules.

Those working in the medtech sector returned from their traditional August break to a growing sense that the EU is more collectively aligned about the need to improve the medtech regulations and soon.

So far, calls for much needed changes to the medtech regulatory system have focused on the Medical Device Regulation. Don’t neglect the IVD Regulation, industry says.

This week, Neuralink announced it received US FDA breakthrough device designation for a device to restore sight; medtechs Discure and DeepLook secured new funding; FDA pump recalls from B. Braun Medical and Fresenius Kabi; Axonics prevails in patent infringement lawsuit with Medtronic; Merit Medical buys Cook Medical for $210m.

Leaders from Eli Lilly and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, 9amHealth, Features Capital, and accelerator PharmStars discussed the convergence of biopharma, medtech and healthtech, and what is needed to achieve health care transformation, in an LSX World Congress USA panel.

There is considerable focus at present on how far notified bodies can go in helping position their clients to have as smooth a conformity assessment passage as possible. It is a fine balancing act for all involved, but a new document gives useful insights.