Cardiovascular Device Update articles from February 2003

Cardiovascular Device Update archives from February 2003

At year's first investor gatherings, cardio companies look to the future.
February 1, 2003... In half-hour presentations and lengthier panel discussions, cardiovascular technology company officials, clinicians and industry analysts elevated the dispersal of information to a new art form during two bellwether investor conferences held on...

Stent picture of future may be one without pharmacology presence.
February 1, 2003... WASHINGTON -- While the approval of drug-eluting stents is practically a certainty, interventional radiologists and cardiologists alike are wasting no time in looking to the future and what it may hold in terms of breakthrough treatments. That...

Preventive pacemaker installation studied. (Report from Europe).(new developments in cardiac equipment)
February 1, 2003... Traditional cardiac pacemakers are continuing to improve, particularly in regard to new applications. We have already seen pacemakers with memories from Biotronik (Berlin, Germany) and other companies that can be downloaded by telephone to...

Centerpulse (Zurich, Switzerland) reported closing on the previously announced sale of its Carbomedics (Austin, Texas) and Mitroflow (Richmond, British Columbia) mechanical and tissue heart valve businesses to Snia SpA (Milan, Italy), as planned, for about $116 million. (Acquisitions).(Centerpulse Orthopedics Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Centerpulse (Zurich, Switzerland) reported closing on the previously announced sale of its Carbomedics (Austin, Texas) and Mitroflow (Richmond, British Columbia) mechanical and tissue heart valve businesses to Snia SpA (Milan, Italy), as...

Edwards Lifesciences (Irvine, California), a developer of products and technologies to treat advanced cardiovascular disease, said it has acquired from CardioFocus (Norton, Massachusetts) its surgical business for treating cardiac arrhythmias. (Acquisitions).(Edwards Lifesciences Cardiovascular Resources)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Edwards Lifesciences (Irvine, California), a developer of products and technologies to treat advanced cardiovascular disease, said it has acquired from CardioFocus (Norton, Massachusetts) its surgical business for treating cardiac...

QRS Diagnostic (Plymouth, Minnesota), a developer of software-based medical devices contained entirely in computer cards, and Ventracor Ltd. (Sydney, Australia), a developer in medical devices for heart disease, have signed an asset sale agreement for QRS to acquire Ventracor's Cardiac e-Health Division. (Acquisitions).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * QRS Diagnostic (Plymouth, Minnesota), a developer of software-based medical devices contained entirely in computer cards, and Ventracor Ltd. (Sydney, Australia), a developer in medical devices for heart disease, have signed an asset sale...

Quinton Cardiology (Bothell, Washington) closed on the previously announced acquisition of Burdick (Deerfield, Wisconsin), a cardiology business subsidiary of the Spacelabs Medical division of Instrumentarium, for $24 million, subject to a working capital-related holdback and certain post-closing adjustments, Quinton said. (Acquisitions).(Burdick Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Quinton Cardiology (Bothell, Washington) closed on the previously announced acquisition of Burdick (Deerfield, Wisconsin), a cardiology business subsidiary of the Spacelabs Medical division of Instrumentarium, for $24 million, subject to a...

Welch Allyn (Skaneateles Falls, New York), a manufacturer of medical diagnostic equipment, patient monitoring systems, and miniature precision lamps, and Cardio Control NV (Delft, the Netherlands) jointly disclosed that their governing boards have approved a proposed friendly cash offer by Welch Allyn to acquire all outstanding shares of Cardio Control stock for EUR 6 per share. (Acquisitions).(Welch Allyn Inc.)(Cardio Control N.V.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Welch Allyn (Skaneateles Falls, New York), a manufacturer of medical diagnostic equipment, patient monitoring systems, and miniature precision lamps, and Cardio Control NV (Delft, the Netherlands) jointly disclosed that their governing boards...

AbioCor trial benefits from `outreach' effort. (Business Developments).(Abiomed Inc. continues to test artificial heart)
February 1, 2003... After a period of about nine months apparently on hold, the clinical trial of the AbioCor replacement heart made by Abiomed (Danvers, Massachusetts) picked up speed last month, with the company reporting a second implant in January, the two...

Aesculap (Center Valley, Pennsylvania) said it has been awarded a 24-month agreement with Premier for a complete array of neurosurgery products for the treatment of strokes, tumors and other cerebrovascular conditions. (Agreements).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Aesculap (Center Valley, Pennsylvania) said it has been awarded a 24-month agreement with Premier for a complete array of neurosurgery products for the treatment of strokes, tumors and other cerebrovascular conditions. The multi-source...

Boston Scientific (Natick, Massachusetts) has inked a product development pact with emerging tech firm TriVascular (Santa Rosa, California). (Agreements).(Boston Scientific Corp.)(TriVascular Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Boston Scientific (Natick, Massachusetts) has inked a product development pact with emerging tech firm TriVascular (Santa Rosa, California). The new partnering effort with TriVascular was described as "a series of agreements" which include an...

Sulzer Carbomedics (Austin, Texas), a developer of products for treatment of valvular heart disease, reported an agreement to become a supplier of mechanical heart valves and annuloplasty rings for member facilities of HealthTrust Purchasing Group (HPG; Brentwood, California). (Agreements).(Sulzer Carbomedics Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Sulzer Carbomedics (Austin, Texas), a developer of products for treatment of valvular heart disease, reported an agreement to become a supplier of mechanical heart valves and annuloplasty rings for member facilities of HealthTrust Purchasing...

Medicare panel oks expanded use of ICDs. (Market Updates).(implantable cardioverter defibrillators)(health insurance coverage policy)
February 1, 2003... A Medicare advisory panel recommendation to cover implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) could be a major victory for companies such as Guidant (Indianapolis, Indiana), Medtronic (Minneapolis, Minnesota) and St. Jude Medical (St. Paul,...

Abiomed. (Personal File).(Abiomed Inc. selects new chief financial officer)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * John Thero, chief financial officer at Abiomed (Danvers, Massachusetts), has resigned "to pursue a venture-backed opportunity," the company said. Abiomed's controller, Charles Haaser, will serve as acting CFO until a new CFO is named. Edward...

Cardiome Pharma. (Personal File).(Cardiome Pharma Corp. selects new chief financial officers)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Doug Janzen has been named chief financial officer for Cardiome Pharma (Vancouver, British Columbia). Most recently he was managing director, health sciences, and a partner at Srott Securities. Cardiome also reported the promotion of...

CryoCath Technologies. (Personal File).(new vice president selected)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Robert Mattioli has been named vice president, North American sales and global electrophysiology marketing, for CryoCath Technologies (Montreal, Quebec). He previously was vice president, market development, for the U.S. sales division of St....

EPMedsystems. (Personal File).(EP MedSystems Inc. selects vice president of marketing and sales)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Mark Adams has joined EP Medsystems (West Berlin, New Jersey), a maker of electrophysiology (EP) products used to diagnose and treat certain types of cardiac rhythm disorders, as vice president sales & marketing. He has more than 21 years of...

Forbes Medi-Tech. (Personal File).(new vice president and chief financial officer selected)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Don MacDonald, senior vice president and CFO of Forbes Medi-Tech (Vancouver, British Columbia), has accepted an executive position in the mining industry, effective in mid-January. Patricia Pracher, controller, will serve as acting CFO....

Kereos. (Personal File).(new president and chief executive officer selected)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Robert (Al) Beardsley, PhD, has been named president and chief executive officer of Kereos (St. Louis, Missouri) and will join the company's board of directors. He was a co-founder and is a managing member of Simile Investors, a private...

Spectranetics. (Personal File).(Spectranetics Corp. names new president and chief executive officer)
February 1, 2003... * Spectranetics (Colorado Springs, Colorado) has named John Schulte president and CEO, assuming the duties previously being fulfilled on an interim basis by Emile Geisenheimer, the company's board chairman. Schulte has been a member of the...

Taxus wins CE mark as BSX joins stent race. (Product Pipeline).(Boston Scientific Corp.'s stent system approved in Europe)
February 1, 2003... A second player has officially arrived in the drug-eluting stent market with a European approval. Boston Scientific (BSX; Natick, Massachusetts) received the CE mark for its Taxus stent system in late January, joining Johnson & Johnson's (J&J;...

Alteon. (Product Pipeline).(Alteon Inc. tests heart failure medication)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Alteon (Ramsey, New Jersey) reported positive results from a preliminary analysis of the Phase IIa DIAMOND (Distensibility Improvement and Remodeling in Diastolic Heart Failure) clinical trial evaluating the activity of ALT-711 in diastolic...

AngioDesign. (Product Pipeline).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * AngioDesign (Lincoln, Nebraska) said it determined the 3-D crystal structure of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), a finding reported in the Jan. 19 online edition of Nature. The newly formed company said improvements could be made on...

Angiotech Pharmaceuticals. (Product Pipeline).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Angiotech Pharmaceuticals (Vancouver, British Columbia) reported "promising" results from its preclinical study of paclitaxel-loaded perivascular wraps for the treatment of restenosis associated with bypass vascular surgery. The final...

Biotronik (Lake Oswego, Oregon) reported the first implant of its Protos pacemaker, that implant being placed in an 81-year-old female patient by William Bailey, MD, of the Heart & Vascular Center (Lake Charles, Louisiana). (Product Pipeline).(Biotronik Inc.)
February 1, 2003... * Biotronik (Lake Oswego, Oregon) reported the first implant of its Protos pacemaker, that implant being placed in an 81-year-old female patient by William Bailey, MD, of the Heart & Vascular Center (Lake Charles, Louisiana). Biotronik calls...

Cardiac Science. (Product Pipeline).(Cardiac Science Inc. markets defibrillator for children)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Cardiac Science (Irvine, California), a manufacturer of automated public-access defibrillators (AEDs), said that the FDA has granted the company 510(k) clearance to market its Powerheart AED for use on children under eight years old. The FDA...

Cardima. (Product Pipeline).(Cardima Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Cardima (Fremont, California) said the Therapeutic Products Directorate of Health Canada has approved a license to market the company's Revelation family of ablation microcatheters for the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF). The license...

Concentric Medical. (Product Pipeline).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Concentric Medical (Mountain View, California) said the company has received approval to affix the CE mark to the components of the Merci (Mechanical Embolus Removal for Cerebral Ischemia) System, a minimally invasive approach to quickly...

Cook. (Product Pipeline).(Cook Group Inc. licences a stent-graft system)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Cook (Bloomington, Indiana) has received a device license from Health Canada for the Zenith AAA Endovascular Graft System, a third-generation stent-graft system for the endovascular treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms. Cook said the...

CryoVascular Systems. (Product Pipeline).(Cryovascular Systems Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * CryoVascular Systems' (Los Gatos, California) PolarCath System--which uses a new form of angioplasty to open blocked arteries by cooling and dilating them--appears to be more successful and result in fewer complications than conventional...

Estech (Danville, California) said it has established marketing agreements for its cardiovascular surgical products with partners in what it calls "key international markets." (Product Pipeline).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Estech (Danville, California) said it has established marketing agreements for its cardiovascular surgical products with partners in what it calls "key international markets." It has formed distribution agreements with Getz Bros. for Japan...

ev3 (Plymouth, Minnesota), a privately held endovascular company, said the Protege GPS stent is the latest version of the Protege self-expanding stent line ev3 obtained with its acquisition of IntraTherapeutics in November 2002. (Product Pipeline).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * ev3 (Plymouth, Minnesota), a privately held endovascular company, said the Protege GPS stent is the latest version of the Protege self-expanding stent line ev3 obtained with its acquisition of IntraTherapeutics in November 2002. The Protege...

First Hypertension Diagnostics (St. Paul, Minnesota) said it has been advised that ShenZhen Filiale ShenYong Medical-Pharmacal, the company's distributor in China, has received approval from the Chinese State Drug Administration to import and market the CVProfilor DO-2020 CardioVascular Profiling System in that country. (Product Pipeline).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * First Hypertension Diagnostics (St. Paul, Minnesota) said it has been advised that ShenZhen Filiale ShenYong Medical-Pharmacal, the company's distributor in China, has received approval from the Chinese State Drug Administration to import and...

Guidant (Indianapolis, Indiana) continued its recent rapid pace of approvals in the congestive heart failure (CHF) arena with the mid-January FDA clearance of the Contak Renewal cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator (CRT-D). (Product Pipeline).(Guidant Corp.)
February 1, 2003... * Guidant (Indianapolis, Indiana) continued its recent rapid pace of approvals in the congestive heart failure (CHF) arena with the mid-January FDA clearance of the Contak Renewal cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator (CRT-D). The...

i-STAT. (Product Pipeline).(i-STAT Corp. develops blood analyzers)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * i-STAT (East Windsor, New Jersey), a manufacturer of point-of-care diagnostic systems for blood analysis, said that clinical trials of an i-STAT System cartridge to detect the presence of cardiac troponin I (cTnI), a marker observed in...

Medtronic Physio-Control (Redmond, Washington) has introduced what it calls its "most rugged automated external defibrillator [AED]," the Lifepak 500 DPS, designed for medical emergencies in difficult and dangerous settings. (Product Pipeline).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Medtronic Physio-Control (Redmond, Washington) has introduced what it calls its "most rugged automated external defibrillator [AED]," the Lifepak 500 DPS, designed for medical emergencies in difficult and dangerous settings. The Lifepak 500...

Medtronic (Minneapolis, Minnesota) launched the Xpedient Delivery System for its AneuRx AAA Stent Graft System, which repairs abdominal aortic aneurysms through a minimally invasive endovascular repair procedure. (Product Pipeline).(Medtronic Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Medtronic (Minneapolis, Minnesota) launched the Xpedient Delivery System for its AneuRx AAA Stent Graft System, which repairs abdominal aortic aneurysms through a minimally invasive endovascular repair procedure. The AneuRx stent graft with...

Neoprobe (Dublin, Ohio), a developer of oncology and cardiovascular surgical and diagnostic products, was issued U. S. patent No. 6,503,205 covering key aspects of the blood flow measurement technology of its wholly owned Cardiosonix (Hod Hasharon, Israel) subsidiary. (Product Pipeline).(Neoprobe Corp.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Neoprobe (Dublin, Ohio), a developer of oncology and cardiovascular surgical and diagnostic products, was issued U. S. patent No. 6,503,205 covering key aspects of the blood flow measurement technology of its wholly owned Cardiosonix (Hod...

Novoste. (Product Pipeline).(Novoste Corp.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Novoste (Norcross, Georgia) said the FDA has approved its premarket approval supplement for the B-Rail 3.5F Delivery Catheter and that it intends to immediately begin re-release of the product to customers. The PMA supplement was filed, and...

OmniSonics Medical Technologies (Wilmington, Massachusetts), a developer of products to treat vascular occlusive disease based on its patented OmniWave Technology platform, said clinical researchers presented preliminary data on the Resolution System at the International Symposium on Endovascular Therapy (ISET) in Miami Beach, Florida, last month. (Product Pipeline).(OmniSonics Medical Technologies Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * OmniSonics Medical Technologies (Wilmington, Massachusetts), a developer of products to treat vascular occlusive disease based on its patented OmniWave Technology platform, said clinical researchers presented preliminary data on the...

Qmed (Eatontown, New Jersey) said researchers from several institutions published an article regarding the company's physician decision support and disease management system for coronary artery disease. (Product Pipeline).(QMed Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Qmed (Eatontown, New Jersey) said researchers from several institutions published an article regarding the company's physician decision support and disease management system for coronary artery disease. The paper was published in Disease...

Spectranetics. (Product Pipeline).(Spectranetics Corp. and laser angioplasty)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Excimer laser developer Spectranetics (Colorado Springs, Colorado) reported at last month's Interventional Symposium on Endovascular Therapy that data from its Laser Angioplasty to treat Critical Limb Ischemia (LACI) pivotal Phase II clinical...

St. Jude Medical (St. Paul, Minnesota) said it has reached minimum enrollment requirements for its large multicenter Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Post AV Node Ablation Evaluation, or PAVE study. (Product Pipeline).(St. Jude Medical Inc.)
February 1, 2003... * St. Jude Medical (St. Paul, Minnesota) said it has reached minimum enrollment requirements for its large multicenter Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Post AV Node Ablation Evaluation, or PAVE study. A total of 328 patients at 47 centers in...

Theragenics (Buford, Georgia), manufacturer of the TheraSeed device, began the TheraP clinical trial at Fuqua Heart Center of Atlanta at Piedmont Hospital (Atlanta, Georgia). (Product Pipeline).(Theragenics Corp.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Theragenics (Buford, Georgia), manufacturer of the TheraSeed device, began the TheraP clinical trial at Fuqua Heart Center of Atlanta at Piedmont Hospital (Atlanta, Georgia). The study will test the safety and feasibility of the company's...

World Heart. (Product Pipeline).(World Heart Corp. receives approval for heart assist device)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * World Heart (Ottawa, Ontario) has received approval from the FDA for an ePTFE inflow conduit as a component of its Novacor LVAS (left ventricular assist system). The inflow conduit carries blood from the natural heart to the Novacor LVAS,...