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After launching a collaboration nearly two years ago to bring artificial intelligence to kidney drug design, AstraZeneca and BenevolentAI believe they’ve discovered a winner.Using its biomedical datasets, BenevolentAI’s machine learning platform predicted the existence of a novel target in the underlying cellular mechanisms that cause chronic kidney disease—which was later confirmed through experiments by AstraZeneca researchers. The AI-generated target has been selected by the drugmaker as a new goal for its portfolio, making it the first product to come out of the companies’ partnership, which also focuses on idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Virtual Clinical Trials Summit Virtual Clinical Trials Summit: The…

Ahead of its upcoming merger and plans to go public, hand-held ultrasound developer Butterfly Network has named a new president and CEO. Todd Fruchterman, former president and general manager of 3M’s $4.8 billion medical solutions division, will helm the company starting Feb. 1. The announcement was made jointly with Butterfly’s corporate suitor, Longview Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose company backed by hedge fund Glenview Capital Management. Former CEO Laurent Faracci stepped down earlier this week. The $1.5 billion acquisition deal was announced last November, following Longview’s $300 million IPO in early 2020. Virtual Clinical Trials Summit Virtual Clinical Trials Summit: The…

Babson Diagnostics hopes to make real the industry’s long-held dream of bringing quick and thorough clinical testing to retail markets and pharmacies—without the use of needles, tubes or trained phlebotomists—and it’s starting to build the clinical evidence to support it. Typical venipuncture requires a trained professional and takes about 4 to 10 milliliters of blood out of the arm—but produces a high-quality sample, capable of consistent results. Squeezing drops of blood from a pricked finger, on the other hand, can contaminate or alter the sample and at times be less accurate. To help mitigate these problems, Babson aims to deploy a…

Fighting the pandemic will remain a top priority in 2021, not least for the Biopharma companies working on the next generation of therapeutics and vaccines against COVID-19. But just because we’re in a pandemic doesn’t mean all other diseases have stopped plaguing humanity. We asked executives which areas might see a resurgence this year, and neurology emerged as a popular horse to bet on. Part of that interest could be down to Biogen’s once-failed Alzheimer’s disease candidate, aducanumab, which is slated for an FDA decision by March 7. “I think neurology will continue to be a big focus, at least…

According to a new report from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, a fast-moving strain of the coronavirus has been detected in at least 12 states. The CDC predicts that the variant—known as B.1.1.7, and first identified in the U.K. last fall— “has the potential to increase the U.S. pandemic trajectory in the coming months,” and could become the predominant mutation by the end of March. Though it is more infectious than previous strains of the virus, it has not appeared to be more lethal to an individual patient. However, a sharp increase in the total number of cases will…

Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy Synthes division has received FDA clearance for its robotic-assisted orthopedic surgical platform for total knee replacements.The Velys digital joint reconstruction system—also used for hip and shoulder procedures—is designed to work with the company’s Attune knee implant. Alongside advanced planning capabilities, the system helps the surgeon make precise cuts into bone and position the replacement joint accurately relative to the knee’s surrounding muscles, tendons and ligaments. “Globally, previous generation robotics have only penetrated key orthopaedic segments between 5-10% of the market,” said Aldo Denti, group chairman of the DePuy Synthes franchise. “A significant opportunity for combined robotic…

Shortly after Abbott completed its delivery of 150 million rapid antigen tests to the federal government for widespread distribution against the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a study saying the card-based diagnostic may fail to catch about two-thirds of asymptomatic cases. Conducted alongside local health officials for Arizona’s Pima County, which surrounds the city of Tucson, the study collected pairs of samples from each of over 3,400 adults and adolescents. One swab was tested using Abbott’s BinaxNOW test, while the other was processed using a PCR-based molecular test. Among those who did…

Haemonetics has moved to acquire Cardiva Medical, maker of bloodstopping and vascular closure systems used during hospital procedures, in a $510 million deal. Cardiva’s portfolio includes two catheter-based devices used to help seal up access sites following minimally invasive interventions and diagnostic procedures—such as those that use the femoral artery and veins in the leg to reach the heart or other locations. Both devices employ a collapsible disc in different sizes to deliver a collagen patch to stop blood loss that is later resorbed by the body as the wound heals. “This acquisition immediately expands and diversifies our hospital offerings in…

Philips has moved to acquire Capsule Technologies—a provider of data platforms that aim to connect all of the medical devices and record systems within a hospital—to help build out its integrated care and vital sign monitoring solutions.The $635 million cash deal is expected to be completed by the end of March, with Capsule’s 300 employees slated to join Philips’ connected care division. Capsule’s software-as-a-service offerings are currently used by over 2,800 healthcare organizations globally, with development teams based in the U.S. and France, while its platform can connect to over 940 unique devices. “Integrated patient care management solutions supported by…

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed a DNA test to help spot dangerous secondary infections that may develop during COVID-19 treatment—such as cases of pneumonia associated with ventilator equipment provided during intensive care.Patients under mechanical ventilation are typically given anti-inflammatory drugs to ease damage to their lungs, however this may leave them more susceptible to bacteria and fungi in the hospital. The test, developed at Cambridge University Hospitals in collaboration with Public Health England, is designed to identify the infection and help suggest the appropriate course of antibiotics. The approach—which promises to be much faster than culturing bacterial samples…