Cardiology

Merck & Co., which already has an oral PCSK9 inhibitor in Phase III, licensed Hengrui’s Lipoprotein(a)-lowering small molecule HRS-5346 outside of Greater China for $200m up front.

The Barcelona Health Hub is a nonprofit that seeks to advance digital health innovation by bringing together start-ups, investors, health care institutions and corporations.

In this first of a two-part series highlighting digital and healthtech innovation in Barcelona, Medtech Insight visits the Barcelona Health Hub, a nonprofit that seeks to advance digital health innovation by bringing together start-ups, investors, health care institutions and corporations.

Medtech Insight was on the ground at HLTH looking for innovative companies. Learn about seven start-ups using AI to help physicians detect conditions including prostate and breast cancers, seizures and heart failure; assess patients for cognitive decline validate and deploy algorithms, and monitor patients in and out of the hospital.

Start-ups pitched a diverse deck of innovative technologies to three judges and an audience of potential investors, strategics and physicians at the Octane Medical Innovation Forum in Irvine, CA. Highlights include neuromodulation company Sinaptica Therapeutics, which won the competition for both “People’s Choice” and “Judge’s Choice.”

This week, J&J announced that it was buying heart failure device firm V-Wave; Procept got the FDA’s OK on a clinical trial of its Aquablation treatment for prostate cancer; and CMS began to consider Medicare reimbursement of Abbott’s TriClip tricuspid repair device.

Tricuspid valve innovation has taken off since the US FDA’s 2023 authorizations of Edwards' Evoque and Abbott's TriClip systems. Whether to repair or replace tricuspid valves remains an open, nuanced question among cardiologists. Dr. Henrik Treede of University Hospital Mainz and TriCares CEO Ahmed Elmouelhi offer views on the evolving space.

The results from a trio of studies show that AI-powered digital stethoscopes are effective at identifying patients at elevated risk of experiencing heart attacks and other major cardiac adverse events, according to Eko Health, whose technology was used to screen the participants in the studies.

TRiCares announced first implantation of the Topaz transfemoral tricuspid heart valve replacement system as part of the company’s EU pivotal study. If all goes to plan, the device will compete with Edwards’ Evoque system. The announcement follows the company’s $50m series D funding raise in July.

Philip Morris described a scenario of being essentially blacklisted by the health care sector and its CDMO partners as it threw in the towel on its £1.1bn acquisition of UK inhalation specialist Vectura. It agreed to offload the firm at a fraction of the initial cost.