Cardiovascular Device Update articles from December 2001

Cardiovascular Device Update archives from December 2001

Next-generation technologies are emerging in cardiovascular therapy.
December 1, 2001... ANAHEIM, California -- Continued advances in technologies used for the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease have been a hallmark of the segment for many years, dating to the first open-heart surgery procedure over four decades ago....

Cardima symposium on AF treatment is a major (early) draw. (AHA notebook).(atrial fibrillation, American Heart Association annual meeting)
December 1, 2001... ANAHEIM, California -- With the nearly endless list of events offered at the American Heart Association's (AHA; Dallas, Texas) annual Scientific Sessions here last month, an early morning session might be considered low on an attendee's...

Growth factor scaffold restores flow to tissues. (From the Lab).
December 1, 2001... Angiogenesis is refueling ischemic hearts, brains and other blood-starved bodily tissues. Scads of researchers are currently trying stem cell and gene therapy strategies to promote angiogenesis in the tissues and organs where it's needed. It's...

DRGs discourage German innovation. (Report from Europe).(diagnosis related group)
December 1, 2001... Professor Heinz-Peter Schultheiss, medical director at the Berlin University Clinic (Berlin, Germany), has criticized the German government's DRG (diagnosis related group) system as pressuring physicians into providing medical treatments based...

Briefly noted.
December 1, 2001... * Tissuepatch V is a contact-adhesive sealant film for vascular surgery that has now gained full European regulatory approval. Produced by Tissuemed (Leeds, England), Tissuepatch is manufactured from clinically pure porcine albumin, polymers...

Bio-Imaging Technologies (Newtown, Pennsylvania) has purchased the Intelligent Imaging business of Quintiles Transnational (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina). (Acquisitions).
December 1, 2001... * Bio-Imaging Technologies (Newtown, Pennsylvania) has purchased the Intelligent Imaging business of Quintiles Transnational (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina). Intelligent Imaging specializes in providing digital medical imaging services...

Boston Scientific (BSX; Natick, Massachusetts). (Acquisitions).
December 1, 2001... * Boston Scientific (BSX; Natick, Massachusetts), which of late has appeared to be taking a breather from the hectic pace of it set for itself on the acquisition trail, is back at it. Boston Scientific, which does much of its business in the...

NMT Medical (Boston, Massachusetts) has sold assets comprising its vena cava filter business to C.R. Bard (Murray Hill, New Jersey). (Acquisitions).
December 1, 2001... * NMT Medical (Boston, Massachusetts) has sold assets comprising its vena cava filter business to C.R. Bard (Murray Hill, New Jersey). In exchange for these assets, NMT will receive $27 million in up-front cash payments, of which $8.5 million...

Boehringer launches PROTECTION trial. (Business Developments).
December 1, 2001... At this year's American Heart Association (AHA; Dallas, Texas) Scientific Sessions, Boehringer Ingelheim (Ingelheim, Germany) reported the launch of what it called the largest cardiovascular study in company history. The PROTECTION study will...

Battelle Pulmonary Therapeutics (BPT; Columbus, Ohio) has entered into a pilot study research agreement with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK; Greenford, UK). (Agreements).
December 1, 2001... * Battelle Pulmonary Therapeutics (BPT; Columbus, Ohio) has entered into a pilot study research agreement with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK; Greenford, UK) to formulate and deliver a compound through to clinical proof-of-concept studies using BPT's...

Cholestech (Hayward, California) signed a nonexclusive agreement for Allegiance Healthcare (McGraw Park, Illinois). (Agreements).
December 1, 2001... * Cholestech (Hayward, California) signed a nonexclusive agreement for Allegiance Healthcare (McGraw Park, Illinois) to market, sell and distribute Cholestech products to health care providers in the U.S., including more than 100,000 physician...

Jomed NV (Zurich, Switzerland) said it had agreed to license patents from Johnson & Johnson (New Brunswick, New Jersey) on the manufacture of balloon catheters for coronary and peripheral use. (Agreements).
December 1, 2001... * Jomed NV (Zurich, Switzerland) said it had agreed to license patents from Johnson & Johnson (New Brunswick, New Jersey) on the manufacture of balloon catheters for coronary and peripheral use. It did not say what royalty it would pay for...

Micro Therapeutics (MTI; Irvine, California) has entered into an agreement appointing EV3 International as its exclusive representative for the company's endovascular products. (Agreements).
December 1, 2001... * Micro Therapeutics (MTI; Irvine, California) has entered into an agreement appointing EV3 International as its exclusive representative for the company's endovascular products, including Onyx, a treatment for conditions that can lead to...

Cardiac pacing can help elderly who fall. (Market Updates).
December 1, 2001... Elderly adults who have recurrent, unexplained falls, attributing them to old age, weak joints or other causes, actually may suffer from a heart condition that can be effectively treated by cardiac pacing, according to an article in a recent...

Boston Scientific. (Personnel File).
December 1, 2001... * Pete Nicholas, chairman of Boston Scientific (Natick, Massachusetts), last month announced his intention to further reduce his involvement in the management of the company, with an eye toward completing the transition from his executive role...

InterCure. (Personnel File).
December 1, 2001... * Michael Concannon has been named vice president of marketing for InterCure (Princeton, New Jersey). Concannon previously was the vice president of merchandising for drugstore.com. InterCure is a medical technology company developing a new...

Cook Group. (Personnel File).
December 1, 2001... * Kem Hawkins has been promoted from vice president of global sales and marketing to president of Cook Group (Bloomington, Indiana), the holding company for the Cook companies worldwide. Hawkins succeeds Bill Cook, wino remains chairman of the...

Wilson Greatbatch Technologies. (Personnel File).
December 1, 2001... * Arthur Lalone has resigned as senior vice president, finance, for Wilson Greatbatch Technologies (Clarence, New York). Wilson Greatbatch makes power sources and components used in pacemakers and other implantable medical devices and specialty...

PharmaSonics reports early SILENT results. (Product Pipeline).
December 1, 2001... PharmaSonics (Sunnyvale, California) reported final results for SILENT, the Phase I registry of the company's Intravascular Sonotherapy System for restenosis following coronary stenting. Sonotherapy, which employs a selective spectrum of...

Arrow International. (Product Pipeline).
December 1, 2001... * Arrow International (Reading, Pennsylvania) reported the successful implant of its LionHeart, a fully implantable Left Ventricular Assist System (LVAS), last month in Pavia, Italy. This means five European locations have implanted the...

Aventis Pharmaceuticals (Bridgewater, New Jersey). (Product Pipeline).
December 1, 2001... * Aventis Pharmaceuticals (Bridgewater, New Jersey), the U.S. pharmaceutical business of Aventis Pharma AG, reported a landmark, 8,000-patient clinical trial designed to advance the standard of practice for acute coronary. SYNERGY (Superior...

Cambridge Heart. (Product Pipeline).
December 1, 2001... * Cambridge Heart (Bedford, Massachusetts) said that a Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code with a specific Medicare payment amount for its Microvolt T-Wave Alternans testing has been published in the Federal Register. Effective Jan. 1,...

CardioDynamics International. (Product Pipeline).
December 1, 2001... * CardioDynamics International (San Diego, California) received FDA 510(k) clearance for its second generation BioZ.com II system. Shipments will begin late in the company's fourth fiscal quarter of 2001. The new BioZ.com II offers notable...

CV Therapeutics. (Product Pipeline).
December 1, 2001... * CV Therapeutics (Palo Alto, California) said that in an open-label, dose-ranging Phase II trial in patients with atrial fibrillation or flutter, CVT-510 consistently reduced heart rate from baseline without decreasing blood pressure. The...

Data-Ray (Westminster, Colorado). (Product Pipeline).
December 1, 2001... * Data-Ray (Westminster, Colorado) presented its Precision 1M at last month's meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago, Illinois. An LCD flat panel with more than 1,554 visible gray shades, it provides greater grayscale...

Durect. (Product Pipeline).
December 1, 2001... * Durect (Cupertino, California) reported research results showing in animal models that new blood vessels are formed and that blood flow to an ischemic heart can be restored following targeted delivery of fibroblast growth factor to the heart....

GlaxoSmithKline. (Product Pipeline).
December 1, 2001... * GlaxoSmithKline (London, UK) reported FDA approval of Coreg (carvedilol) for the treatment of severe heart failure. Coreg is already approved for the treatment of mild to moderate heart failure. Also, Coreg is now the only beta-blocking agent...

Guidant. (Product Pipeline).
December 1, 2001... * Guidant (Indianapolis, Indiana) said it has launched its Multi-Link Tristar coronary stent system in Japan. The product is available in low profiles and includes a broad range of sizes: diameters from 2.5 mm to 4.0 mm and lengths ranging from...

LightLab Imaging (Westford, Massachusetts). (Product Pipeline).
December 1, 2001... * LightLab Imaging (Westford, Massachusetts) began human cardiovascular studies using its Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) ultra-high resolution imaging platform and its .014" ImageWire. The study being conducted at the Siegburg Heart Center...

Quinton. (Product Pipeline).
December 1, 2001... * Quinton (Bothell, Washington) released an electrocardiograph (ECG) unit, the QCG 740, a unit that acquires 10-second sections of ECG data and analyzes results for irregularities. The QCG 740 is the first product in a new family of Quinton...

St. Jude Medical (St. Paul, Minnesota). (Product Pipeline).
December 1, 2001... * St. Jude Medical (St. Paul, Minnesota) reported the first implant of its Identity XL DR pacemaker, which took place at Kerkhoff Heart Center (Bad Nauheim, Germany). The Integrity pacemaker includes the company's AFx feature set, designed to...

Synthetic Blood International. (Product Pipeline).
December 1, 2001... * Synthetic Blood International (SYBD; Costa Mesa, California) said that results from a series of experiments in rats suggest that Oxycyte, SYBD's perfluorocarbon (PFC) based blood substitute and therapeutic oxygen carrier, may be effective in...

Texas Biotechnology (Houston, Texas). (Product Pipeline).
December 1, 2001... * Texas Biotechnology (Houston, Texas) said marketing partner GlaxoSmithKline (London) initiated a Phase II trial evaluating Argatroban as a treatment for patients undergoing percutaneous coronary interventions. The 100-patient, open-label...