Cardiovascular Device Update articles from February 2002

Cardiovascular Device Update archives from February 2002

Tests for cardiovascular risk assessment are a growth market.
February 1, 2002... New tests used in risk assessment for cardiovascular disease represent one promising area of growth in an otherwise generally stagnant clinical chemistry products sector. Those include emerging markers such as C-reactive protein (CRP) that can...

Heart disease No. 1 ranking still drives device, drug sectors.
February 1, 2002... Cardiovascular disease in the 20th century served to drive an expanding market for medical devices, and a year-end 2001 report from the American Heart Association (AHA; Dallas, Texas) suggests the trend is unlikely to change in the current...

Abiomed reports it's `more confident than ever' about AbioCor.
February 1, 2002... After more than six months of experience with human clinical trials, top officials of Abiomed (Danvers, Massachusetts) said last month that they are "more confident than ever" concerning the operation of the company's AbioCor artificial heart....

Hungarian firms focus on cardio monitoring. (Report from Europe).
February 1, 2002... Perhaps because life expectancy levels in Hungary are lagging behind West European levels, there is a strong accentuation in Hungarian medical device manufacturing circles toward diagnostic instrumentation and especially to cardiovascular...

Beckman Coulter.(acquires point-of-care prothrombin time system testing technology from Avocet Medical)
February 1, 2002... * Beckman Coulter (Fullerton, California) said it has acquired a point-of-care system for prothrombin time testing from Avocet Medical (San Jose, California). The $3 million transaction gives Beckman Coulter all rights to the AvoSure system, a...

Medtronic.(acquires GE Medical Systems Information Technology's Paceart division)
February 1, 2002... * Medtronic (Minneapolis, Minnesota) has acquired from GE Medical Systems Information Technology (GEMS IT; Waukesha, Wisconsin) that company's Paceart division, a leader in the development of database systems for pacemakers, implantable...

MedSource Technologies.(acquires HV Technologies)
February 1, 2002... * MedSource Technologies (Minneapolis, Minnesota) said it has completed the acquisition of HV Technologies (HVT; Trenton, Georgia), a maker of high-performance, thin-wall polyimide and composite tubing and catheter systems used in...

United Therapeutics.(acquires rights to sell and use asymmetric dimethlyarginine diagnostic tests)
February 1, 2002... * United Therapeutics (Silver Spring, Maryland) reported acquiring exclusive worldwide rights to manufacture, sell and use diagnostic tests for asymmetric dimethlyarginine (ADMA), a marker of heart disease risk, saying the purchase price "was...

Boston Scientific's Taxus IV is delayed. (Business Developments).
February 1, 2002... Boston Scientific (Natick, Massachusetts) hit a speed bump on its road to clearance of a drug-coated stent product, as the FDA last month failed to clear the design of its key TAXUS IV clinical trial. The company was seeking the okay of its...

Medtronic expands focus to IT. (Business Developments).(information technology)
February 1, 2002... Medtronic (Minneapolis, Minnesota) has built a major franchise around systems implanted within the body. With that foundation, it is looking to expand that focus to ways in which information gathered by its implantable devices can be made more...

CardioGenesis in 28% staff cutback. (Business Developments).
February 1, 2002... Transmyocardial revascularization (TMR) specialist CardioGenesis (Foothill Ranch, California) last month said that it will cut sales and corporate staff by 28%, those moves coming with the report of a projected fourth-quarter loss that could...

Akorn (Buffalo Grove, Illinois) said that as part of a settlement of its dispute with Novadaq Technologies (Toronto, Ontario), the companies have revised their prior agreement relative to the development of a cardiovascular diagnostic technology using Akorn's IC-Green (indocyanine green) product.
February 1, 2002... * Akorn (Buffalo Grove, Illinois) said that as part of a settlement of its dispute with Novadaq Technologies (Toronto, Ontario), the companies have revised their prior agreement relative to the development of a cardiovascular diagnostic...

St. Jude Medical (St. Paul, Minnesota) and Catholic Healthcare West (CHW; San Francisco, California) unveiled a comprehensive purchasing agreement for St. Jude Medical's cardiac rhythm management products tailored for Catholic Healthcare West's 41 member hospitals in California, Arizona and Nevada.
February 1, 2002... * St. Jude Medical (St. Paul, Minnesota) and Catholic Healthcare West (CHW; San Francisco, California) unveiled a comprehensive purchasing agreement for St. Jude Medical's cardiac rhythm management products tailored for Catholic Healthcare...

SonoSite (Bothell, Washington) and Broadlane (San Francisco, California), a provider of supply chain management services to the health care industry, have signed a two-year purchasing agreement to provide Broadlane customers access to SonoSite hand-carried ultrasound systems.
February 1, 2002... * SonoSite (Bothell, Washington) and Broadlane (San Francisco, California), a provider of supply chain management services to the health care industry, have signed a two-year purchasing agreement to provide Broadlane customers access to...

First pacemaker recipient honored. (Market Updates).(Arne H.W. Larsson)
February 1, 2002... One of the most important devices emerging in the 20th century in the cardiovascular sector was the pacemaker. And last month St. Jude Medical (St. Paul, Minnesota) paid tribute to Arne H. W. Larsson, who died Dec. 28 at the age of 86 and was...

LA boosts public-access defibrillation. (Market Updates).
February 1, 2002... Defibrillation got major support last month with the announcement by the city of Los Angeles, California, that it will launch a municipal program to install automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) and getting broad news coverage as a result....

Study: WelChol, Lipitor lower LDL. (Market Updates).
February 1, 2002... WelChol (colesevelam HCl) and Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium), taken in combination, can lower LDL cholesterol levels by 48% in patients with moderately high cholesterol -- a reduction statistically superior to either therapy alone -- according...

American Heart Association.(appoints Gordon McCullough chief operating officer, field operations)
February 1, 2002... * Gordon McCullough has been promoted to chief operating officer, field operations, of the American Heart Association (AHA; Dallas, Texas). He will be responsible for all field revenue, including the association's corporate relations program...

CardioGenesis.(promotes Darrell Eckstein to interim chief financial officer, secretary and treasurer)
February 1, 2002... * CardioGenesis (Foothill Ranch, California) promoted Darrell Eckstein from vice president of operations to interim chief financial officer, secretary and treasurer, replacing J. Stephen Wilkins, who has resigned to pursue other interests. And...

Cardiome Pharma.(names Richard Schwarz, Jr. executive director, congestive heart failure program)
February 1, 2002... * Richard Schwarz Jr., PhD, has been named executive director, congestive heart failure program, for Cardiome Pharma (Vancouver, British Columbia). Schwarz served previously as executive director, cardiovascular therapeutics, at Quintiles....

EP MedSystems.(appoints Praveen Dala-Krisha project engineer; Kenneth Bagnell director of operations)
February 1, 2002... * EP MedSystems (Mt. Arlington, New Jersey) named Dr. Praveen Dala-Krishna project engineer and Kenneth Bagnell director of operations. DalaKrishna has served as senior consultant for Digitek Systems since 1998. From 1998 until 2001, Bagnell...

Micro Therapeutics.(names Kenneth Sumner vice president, regulatory/clinical affairs and quality assurance)
February 1, 2002... * Kenneth Sumner, PhD, has been named vice president, regulatory/clinical affairs and quality assurance at Micro Therapeutics (MTI; Irvine, California). Previously, Sumner was vice president of clinical and regulatory affairs for ATI Medical....

Novoste.(Donald Webber promoted to chief operating officer)
February 1, 2002... * Donald Webber has been promoted from vice president of manufacturing to chief operating officer for Novoste (Norcross, Georgia). Novoste is the developer of the Beta Cath system for brachytherapy.

Rubicon Medical.(Daryl Edmiston promoted to vice president, research and development)
February 1, 2002... * Daryl Edmiston has been promoted from director of research and development to vice president of R&D of Rubicon Medical (Salt Lake City, Utah), a maker of interventional vascular devices/products.

Biotronik technology for pacemakers ok'd. (Product Pipeline).(Closed Loop Stimulation technology)
February 1, 2002... The Closed Loop Stimulation (CLS) technology developed by Biotronik (Berlin, Germany) enables pacemakers to monitor changes in cardiac contractility and to respond not only to exercise but also to other daily activities including stress-making...

Endovasc.(Prostent stent-coating process patent okayed)
February 1, 2002... * Endovasc (Montgomery, Texas) said the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a notice of allowance for its patent application filed in May 1999 covering the use of biodegradable surface coating and method for making the product. The...

Invivo.(report on study on magnetic resonance angiography)
February 1, 2002... * Invivo (Pleasanton, California) said The New England Journal of Medicine published a study on coronary magnetic resonance angiography that could have positive implications for the MRI market served by its wholly owned subsidiary, Invivo...

Jomed N.V.(begins clinical trials for PRESENT and EVIDENT drug-coated stents)
February 1, 2002... * Jomed NV (Beringen, Switzerland) began two clinical studies on drug-coated stents, PRESENT (PREliminary Safety Evaluation of Nanoporous Tacrolimus eluting stents) and EVIDENT (Endo-Vascular Investigation Determining the Safety of a New...

Life Medical Sciences.(receives approval for Repel-CV bioresorbable adhesion barrier trial)
February 1, 2002... * Life Medical Sciences (Oceanport, New Jersey) received FDA approval to conduct a multicenter, feasibility clinical trial on its Repel-CV bioresorbable adhesion barrier. Repel-CV is designed to reduce the formation of adhesions scar tissue on...

Magna-Lab.(MRI catheter coil testing to begin)
February 1, 2002... * Magna-Lab (Syosset, New York) reported that Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, Massachusetts) will begin an animal study of the company's intra-vascular MRI catheter coil. The purpose is to further demonstrate the benefits of using the...

Medtronic.(receives marketing approval for CareLink Monitor technology)
February 1, 2002... * Medtronic (Minneapolis, Minnesota) received FDA approval for its CareLink Monitor and software for remote patient management, allowing physicians to evaluate a patient with an implantable cardiac device over the Internet, without requiring...

Novoste (Norcross, Georgia).(reports on MOre patency with Beta In the Lower Extremity (MOBILE) trial)
February 1, 2002... * Novoste (Norcross, Georgia) said the first two patients were treated in its MOre patency with Beta In the Lower Extremity (MOBILE) trial on Dec. 28 at Rush Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center (Chicago, Illinois). The MOBILE trial protocol...

Qmed (Laurence Harbor, New Jersey) and CHA Health (Lexington, Kentucky) said they have lowered the incidence of heart attack by 35.5% for the total CHA Health membership.
February 1, 2002... * Qmed (Laurence Harbor, New Jersey) and CHA Health (Lexington, Kentucky) said they have lowered the incidence of heart attack by 35.5% for the total CHA Health membership. In addition, they achieved major reductions in the utilization of...

Radiance Medical Systems.(completes BRITE II (Beta Radiation to Reduce In-Stent Restenosis) clinical trial enrollment)
February 1, 2002... * Radiance Medical Systems (Irvine, California) completed enrollment in the BRITE II (Beta Radiation to Reduce In-Stent Restenosis) pivotal clinical study. A total of 423 patients were enrolled in the study at 26 clinical sites in the U.S. and...

St. Jude Medical.(receives premarketing approval for Atlas implantable cardioverter defibrillators)
February 1, 2002... * St. Jude Medical (St. Paul, Minnesota) received premarket approval from the FDA for the Atlas family of implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD), which the company terms the world's most powerful rate-adaptive ICDs. Atlas ICDs offer high...

Thoratec.(reports on upcoming premarket approval supplement)
February 1, 2002... * Thoratec (Pleasanton, California) was notified that the FDA Circulatory System Devices Advisory Panel's review of the company's premarket approval supplement based on the REMATCH (Randomized Evaluation of Mechanical Assistance for the...

Vascular Architects.(aspire Covered Stent and Controlled Expansion Delivery System approved for marketing)
February 1, 2002... * Vascular Architects (San Jose, California) received FDA 510(k) clearance to market the next-generation aspire Covered Stent and Controlled Expansion Delivery System for use in treating tracheobronchial strictures. The aspire Covered Stent is...