Medical Device Week articles from January 2006

Medical Device Week archives from January 2006

Washington Roundup.
January 3, 2006... Washington Roundup Pandemic flu plans will be funded under defense bill By AARON LORENZO Medical Device Daily Staff Writer And MDD Staff Reports WASHINGTON u The president's pandemic influenza plan will get funded after...

2005: No breakthroughs, but plenty on the radar for 2006.
January 3, 2006... Second of two stories 2005: No breakthroughs, but plenty on the radar for 2006 By DON LONG Medical Device Daily Managing Editor As noted in our final issue of Medical Device Daily for 2005 (MDD, Dec. 30, 2005), most of the...

International report.
January 3, 2006... International report BSD Medical nears accords for Japanese market entry A Medical Device Daily Staff Report BSD Medical (Salt Lake City) reported that it is close to completing agreements with Japanese distributors in preparation...

As one very large-scale project launches, another is called for.
January 3, 2006... Beating cancer the high-throughput way As one very large-scale project launches, another is called for By ANETTE BREINDEL Medical Device Daily Science Editor Big Science had a busy time this past month, with one large-scale...

Financings roundup.
January 3, 2006... Financings roundup PainCare to sell $10M in shares; Vascular Solutions adds credit A Medical Device Daily Staff Report PainCare Holdings (Orlando, Florida), a company delivering orthopedic rehabilitation, minimally invasive spine...

Briefly Noted.
January 3, 2006... Briefly Noted Top five pharma events highlighted Decision Resources (Waltham, Massachusetts), a research and advisory firm focusing on pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, reported its list of the top five key healthcare events of...

Med-tech initial public offerings experiences slight slump in '05.
January 3, 2006... Med-tech initial public offerings experiences slight slump in '05 A Medical Device Daily Staff Report The med-tech initial public offering market was not booming in 2005. Compared to about 20 IPOs in the med-tech sector in 2004, only a...

People in Places.
January 3, 2006... People in Places * Byron Hewett, currently president and chief operating officer, has been elected president and CEO and a director of Immunicon (Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania). Edward Erickson, currently chairman and CEO, will serve as...

Product Briefs.
January 3, 2006... Product Briefs * Align Technology (Santa Clara, California), the inventor of Invisalign, a proprietary method of straightening teeth without wires or brackets, reported that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued an order denying an...

Washington roundup.
January 4, 2006... Washington roundup Legal experts see no new curbs on direct-to-consumer drug ads By AARON LORENZO Medical Device Daily Staff Writer WASHINGTON u If direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of drugs provides any sort of bellwether,...

Financings roundup.
January 4, 2006... Financings roundup Inovio closes on $16M stock sale; Spirus garners 'A' round $6M A Medical Device Daily Staff Report Inovio Biomedical (San Diego) reported completing a previously disclosed financing of $15.8 million through the...

Report from Europe.
January 4, 2006... Report from Europe Foundation setting up plans for nanomedicine use in EU By NUALA MORAN Medical Device Daily Contributing Writer and Staff Reports The European Science Foundation (Brussels, Belgium) has set out a plan to...

BD Integra syringe use means one hand much safer than two.
January 4, 2006... BD Integra syringe use means one hand much safer than two By DAVID KOSUB Medical Device Daily Contributing Writer BD Technologies (Little Elm, Texas) reports that clinicians are reacting positively to its release of the BD Integra...

Stryker acquires PlasmaSol tech for $17.5 million, plus liabilities.
January 4, 2006... Stryker acquires PlasmaSol tech for $17.5 million, plus liabilities A Medical Device Daily Staff Report Stryker (Kalamazoo, Michigan) reported that it has acquired, by merger, all outstanding stock of PlasmaSol (Hoboken, New Jersey), a...

Grants/contracts.
January 4, 2006... Grants/contracts Obagi Medical providing grant to Society of Plastic Surgeons A Medical Device Daily Staff Report Obagi Medical Products (Long Beach, California) said that it is providing an unrestricted grant to the American...

Briefly Noted.
January 4, 2006... Briefly Noted Nasdaq denies Aksys relisting Aksys (Lincolnshire, Illinois), a developer of dialysis systems, said it received notice from the Nasdaq market, denying its request for continued listing. Aksys said it is requesting a...

Agreements.
January 4, 2006... Agreements SMI service to use SunGard Information, InSiteOne InDEX A Medical Device Daily Staff Report SunGard Availability Services (Wayne, Pennsylvania) reported a strategic alliance with InSiteOne (Wallingford, Connecticut) to...

Deals roundup.
January 4, 2006... Deals roundup IsoRay signs accord giving it access to IBt's polymer seeds A Medical Device Daily Staff Report IsoRay (Richland, Washington), with its subsidiary IsoRay Medical, reported signing a letter of intent with IBt...

Howard Stern, co-founder of E-Z-EM and AngioDynamics, dead at age 74.(Company Profile)(Obituary)
January 4, 2006... Howard Stern, co-founder of E-Z-EM and AngioDynamics, dead at age 74 A Medical Device Daily Staff Report Howard Stern, co-founder of E-Z-EM (Lake Success, New York) and its AngioDynamics (Queensbury, New York) division, has passed away...

People in Places.
January 4, 2006... People in Places * Gregory Miller has been named senior vice president, corporate development and financial planning for Kindred Healthcare (Louisville, Kentucky) and will serve as a member of its executive committee. Miller joined the...

Product Briefs.
January 4, 2006... Product Briefs * Ingen Technologies (Calimesa, California), which markets OxyAlert and Secure Balance, reported that its newest product, OxyView, is complete and will be ready to be sold to medical markets worldwide in February. OxyView is...

Sourcebook offers overview of cardiovascular tech sector.
January 4, 2006... Sourcebook offers overview of cardiovascular tech sector Advances in Cardiovascular Technology: State of the Industry and Emerging Markets, Vol. 3, is now available from the publishers of Medical Device Daily. This sourcebook provides...

Financings roundup.
January 5, 2006... Financings roundup Small-bone specialist SBI closes 'record' B round of $42.4 million By DON LONG Medical Device Daily Managing Editor Small Bone Innovations (SBI; New York) yesterday reported completing a Series B financing,...

ReGen changes course, elects to pursue 510(k) for CMI device.
January 5, 2006... ReGen changes course, elects to pursue 510(k) for CMI device By HOLLAND JOHNSON Medical Device Daily Associate Managing Editor ReGen Biologics (Franklin Lakes, New Jersey) reported that it has decided to change course, electing to...

Report from Europe.(genetic research)
January 5, 2006... Report from Europe UK genetic study offering up new clues for surviving sepsis By Sharon Kingman Medical Device Daily Correspondent LONDON - Whether someone survives the multiple organ failure that can follow severe infection...

FDA clears Roche NT-proBNP test for cardiac risk assessment.
January 5, 2006... FDA clears Roche NT-proBNP test for cardiac risk assessment By KAREN YOUNG Medical Device Daily Staff Writer Roche Diagnostics (Indianapolis) has received FDA clearance for what the company says is the first and only natriuretic...

Court report.
January 5, 2006... Court report AngioDynamics files complaint; GTG reports lawsuit dismissed A Medical Device Daily Staff Report AngioDynamics (Queensbury, New York) has filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware...

Briefly Noted.
January 5, 2006... Briefly Noted Stereotaxis to relocate HQ Stereotaxis reported that its headquarters will be located at 4320 Forest Park Avenue, Suite 100, St. Louis, Missouri, as of Jan. 9. Stereotaxis manufactures advanced cardiology instrument...

Deals roundup.
January 5, 2006... Deals roundup GE closes $1.2B IDX purchase; St. Jude completes Savacor buy A Medical Device Daily Staff Report GE Healthcare (Waukesha, Wisconsin) reported completing its $1.2 billion acquisition of IDX Systems (South Burlington,...

Grants/contracts.
January 5, 2006... Grants/contracts Northfield to get defense bill funds of $3.5M for PolyHeme A Medical Device Daily Staff Report Northfield Laboratories (Evanston, Illinois) yesterday reported that it will receive $3.5 million in funding for the...

People in Places.
January 5, 2006... People in Places * Ben Beckham has been appointed vice president of sales and marketing for the Oral Restorative Division of Lifecore Biomedical (Haska, Minnesota). Beckham has held sales management positions within the company since 1997....

Product Briefs.
January 5, 2006... Product Briefs * American Bio Medica (Kinderhook, New York) said it has begun offering a point of collection drug screen that detects the presence or absence of buprenorphine in a urine specimen. Buprenorphine is a drug being used in a new...

CUSTOM II launch grows Xtent focus on multi-DES stenting.
January 6, 2006... CUSTOM II launch grows Xtent focus on multi-DES stenting By DON LONG Medical Device Daily Managing Editor Clinical trial testing of drug-eluting stent (DES) devices over the remainder of this decade will seek to assess new, more...

Financings roundup.
January 6, 2006... Financings roundup XDx adds $26.5M in new equity; Aisling develops $550M fund A Medical Device Daily Staff Report XDx (South San Francisco), a molecular diagnostics company, reported completing a $26.5 million financing, with a...

Report from Europe.
January 6, 2006... Report from Europe F&S study sees strong growth for IP VPN service vendors A Medical Device Daily Staff Report Despite budget restraints, the European healthcare segment offers "exciting growth potential for information and...

Deals roundup.(Kyphon acquires InnoSpine)
January 6, 2006... Deals roundup Kyphon's InnoSpine buy valued at up to $30M, with milestones A Medical Device Daily Staff Report Kyphon (Sunnyvale, California) yesterday said it has agreed to acquire InnoSpine (Los Altos Hills, California), a...

Court report.
January 6, 2006... Court report Abbott Labs faces class action; Scrushy to appeal big payback A Medical Device Daily Staff Report A federal judge has granted class-action status to thousands of former employees of Abbott Laboratories (Abbott Park,...

Agreements roundup.
January 6, 2006... Agreements roundup Applied Biosystems in DNA pact with Hitachi High-Technologies A Medical Device Daily Staff Report Applied Biosystems Group (Foster City, California), an Applera business, reported that it has entered into a...

Grants/contracts.
January 6, 2006... Grants/contracts AAOMS makes donation to Society of Anesthesiologists A Medical Device Daily Staff Report The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS; Rosemont, Illinois) reported making a donation to the...

Briefly Noted.
January 6, 2006... Briefly Noted Report sees increasing asthma, COPD The international incidence of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) now surpasses 314 million, and an aging world population is increasingly susceptible to...

People in Places.
January 6, 2006... People in Places * Thomas Tully has been appointed chairman and CEO of IDev Technologies (Houston). Company founder and former CEO, Jeffery Sheldon, will retain the position of president, chief operating officer and board member. From...

Product Briefs.
January 6, 2006... Product Briefs * Nanogen (San Diego) said it has expanded its molecular reagent product portfolio to include two new products to detect sequences for respiratory viral pathogens: a multiplex solid-phase hybridization set of reagents that...

Angiotech's anti-microbial CVC trial pushes drug/device work.
January 9, 2006... Angiotech's anti-microbial CVC trial pushes drug/device work By HOLLAND JOHNSON Medical Device Daily Associate Managing Editor Angiotech Pharmaceuticals (Vancouver, British Columbia), supplier of the drug component paclitaxel to...

SpectRx completes beta phase of cervical cancer test device.
January 9, 2006... SpectRx completes beta phase of cervical cancer test device By KAREN YOUNG Medical Device Daily Staff Writer SpectRx (Norcross, Georgia) has reported that it has built and successfully tested its first pre-production, non-invasive...

Report from Israel.
January 9, 2006... Report from Israel Private incubators, technology attract interest - and funding By RAE FISHMAN Medical Device Daily Correspondent ZICHRON YAAKOV, Israel - Channukah and Christmas saw some new lights going on in the Israeli...

Deals roundup.
January 9, 2006... Deals roundup Boston Sci says it's positioned for pursuing buy of Guidant A Medical Device Daily Staff Report The end of this week is expected to produce a new round of developments in the continued pursuit of Guidant...

Financings roundup.
January 9, 2006... Financings roundup Ophthalmology incubator formed with $2.4 million in seed funding A Medical Device Daily Staff Report ForSight Labs (Menlo Park, California), which aims to incubate new companies around promising ophthalmic...

Washington roundup.
January 9, 2006... Washington roundup 'Budget battle' may victimize occupational therapy patients A Medical Device Daily Staff Report The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA; Bethesda, Maryland) has issued a statement urging the Centers...

Agreements roundup.
January 9, 2006... Agreements roundup Charles River in pact to utilize Luminex's xMAP tech for R&D A Medical Device Daily Staff Report Charles River Laboratories International (Wilmington, Massachusetts), a provider of systems used for drug...

Court report.
January 9, 2006... Court report Charging alleged stock inflation, SeraCare investor sues company A Medical Device Daily Staff Report An investor filed suit against SeraCare Life Sciences (Oceanside, California) in federal court, accusing the company...

Briefly Noted.
January 9, 2006... Briefly Noted International Isotopes completes FEP plant International Isotopes (Idaho Falls, Idaho) reported the completion of the construction and initial operational testing of its Fluorine Extraction Process (FEP) production plant....

Product Briefs.
January 9, 2006... Product Briefs * CAS Medical Systems (Branford, Connecticut) said that the FDA has cleared its new Model 750E Series Monitor. Coming just six months after the launch of the 750C Monitor, the 750E incorporates either 3- or 5-lead ECG with...

For sector leader Medtronic, growth beat goes on and on.
January 10, 2006... JPMorgan Healthcare Conference For sector leader Medtronic, growth beat goes on and on By JIM STOMMEN Medical Device Daily Executive Editor SAN FRANCISCO u Stepping to the podium shortly after a JPMorgan Chase (New York)...

Boston Sci submits a definitive $25B offer to acquire Guidant.
January 10, 2006... Boston Sci submits a definitive $25B offer to acquire Guidant By HOLLAND JOHNSON Medical Device Daily Associate Managing Editor Johnson & Johnson's (J&J; New Brunswick, New Jersey) already tenuous bid to acquire Guidant...

International report.
January 10, 2006... International report GeneLink gets Australian patent for assessing oxidative stress A Medical Device Daily Staff Report GeneLink (Jersey City, New Jersey) reported that the Australian patent office issued it a patent for its...

IP shift in ovarian cancer study device use small, but big effect.
January 10, 2006... IP shift in ovarian cancer study device use small, but big effect By KAREN YOUNG Medical Device Daily Staff Report Treatment changes sometimes come with alterations, large and small, in medical device usage. And while a...

Financings roundup.
January 10, 2006... Financings roundup Micrus, Biotronik in development pact for neurovascular devices A Medical Device Daily Staff Report Micrus Endovascular (Sunnyvale, California) and Biotronik (Bulach, Switzerland) reported signing an exclusive...

Deals roundup.
January 10, 2006... Deals roundup ev3 acquires rest of MTI shares; Per-Se completes NDCHealth buy A Medical Device Daily Staff Report ev3 (Plymouth, Minnesota), a global endovascular device company, reported completing the acquisition of the...

One-third of hip fractures in U.S. had surgery.
January 10, 2006... One-third of hip fractures in U.S. had surgery One third of the 310,000 Americans hospitalized for hip fracture in 2003 underwent hip replacement surgery, according to data from Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and...

Agreements.
January 10, 2006... Agreements Tengion to fund 'neo-organ' and tissue R&D work at Wake Forest A Medical Device Daily Staff Report Wake Forest University Health Sciences (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) and Tengion (King of Prussia, Pennsylvania)...

Gambro gets Prisma system FDA warning, import detention.
January 10, 2006... Gambro gets Prisma system FDA warning, import detention A Medical Device Daily Staff Report Gambro Dasco (Medolla, Italy), a production unit within Gambro Renal Products (Lakewood, Colorado), reported receiving an FDA warning letter...

Briefly Noted.
January 10, 2006... Briefly Noted Merlyn names device division Merlyn Medical Merlyn Associates (Tustin, California) has named its medical device division Merlyn Medical. According to Jay Kotin, president, the name was selected to reflect the company's...

Asuragen reports future course.
January 10, 2006... Asuragen reports future course Asuragen (Austin, Texas), a new company focusing on the emerging opportunities associated with personalized medicine for cancer patients, reported its direction for the future in biotechnology. Led by...

People in Places.(C. Thomas Caskey appointed as director of Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases )(Kevin Hickey appointed as president of D2Hawkeye )(Launa Aspeslet promoted)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2006... People in Places • C. Thomas Caskey, MD, has been appointed CEO-elect and director of the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM; Houston), part of the University of Texas Health...

Product Briefs.
January 10, 2006... Product Briefs • ThermoGenesis (Rancho Cordova, California), a developer of enabling technologies for cell therapeutics, said that the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research notified the company that it was reviewing the...

Smaller companies attracting big interest from investors.
January 11, 2006... JPMorgan Healthcare Conference Smaller companies attracting big interest from investors By JIM STOMMEN Medical Device Daily Executive Editor SAN FRANCISCO u One of the most interesting gauges of the level of investor interest...

Meat-and-potatoes path takes C.R. Bard to $1.78B in sales.
January 11, 2006... JPMorgan Healthcare Conference Meat-and-potatoes path takes C.R. Bard to $1.78B in sales By JIM STOMMEN Medical Device Daily Executive Editor SAN FRANCISCO u Many medical device companies capture public and investor attention...

Report from Europe.
January 11, 2006... Report from Europe ZLB Behring wins FDA approval for 1st PIDD injection therapy A Medical Device Daily Staff Report The FDA yesterday reported the approval of the first immune globulin product for subcutaneous injection for the...

Deals roundup.
January 11, 2006... Deals roundup BD to buy GeneOhm for $230M; Applera restructures Celera j-v By HOLLAND JOHNSON Medical Device Daily Associate Managing Editor In what is the largest new healthcare deal thus far in 2006, BD (Becton, Dickinson;...

Guidant provides updates, Times reveals VHA contract dropped.
January 11, 2006... Guidant provides updates, Times reveals VHA contract dropped A Medical Device Daily Staff Report In the wake of Boston Scientific's (Natick, Massachusetts) definitive $25 billion bid on Sunday for Guidant (Indianapolis) at the expense...

Neoforma subject to Nasdaq delisting.
January 11, 2006... Neoforma subject to Nasdaq delisting Neoforma (San Jose, California), a provider of supply chain management solutions for the healthcare industry, was notified by the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Department that, as a result of the...

Washington roundup.
January 11, 2006... Washington roundup HHS unveils $56.9M in grants to address health disparities A Medical Device Daily Staff Report Mike Leavitt, secretary of Health and Human Services, this week unveiled $56.9 million in awards by the National...

TLC Vision centers opening.
January 11, 2006... TLC Vision centers opening TLC Vision (St. Louis), an eyecare services company, reported the locations of its first six value-priced centers, consistent with its previously announced refractive expansion strategy. A total of 15...

Agreements roundup.
January 11, 2006... Agreements roundup Synthetic Blood and Utek enter strategic agreement A Medical Device Daily Staff Report Synthetic Blood International (Costa Mesa, California), a developer of oxygen therapeutics and continuous substrate...

Financings roundup.
January 11, 2006... Financings roundup Spirus Medical adds 'A' $5.9M from STD Med's incubation A Medical Device Daily Staff Report Spirus Medical (Stoughton, Massachusetts), specializing in the use of helix technology for ease of access in the...

Product Briefs.
January 11, 2006... Product Briefs • Kensey Nash (Exton, Pennsylvania), a manufacturer of absorbable biomaterials-based products, said it submitted an application to the FDA for 510(k) clearance for its ThromCat Thrombectomy Catheter System, a...

People in Places.(Mervat Faltas promoted for Anrad)(Richard Lotti appointed in Aperon Biosystems)(Raymond Cannefax appointed in Paradigm Medical Industries )
January 11, 2006... People in Places • Mervat Faltas has been promoted from vice president of operations to president for Anrad (Saint-Laurent, Quebec). Faltas joined Anrad in July 2005 as vice president of operations. Previously, he served as president...

'Innovation' is word of the day as orthopedic firms take stage.
January 12, 2006... JPMorgan Healthcare Conference 'Innovation' is word of the day as orthopedic firms take stage By JIM STOMMEN Medical Device Daily Executive Editor SAN FRANCISCO u Investors with a gimpy knee from, let's say, an old football...

On St. Jude's run of success, Starks says, 'We're not done'.
January 12, 2006... JPMorgan Healthcare Conference On St. Jude's run of success, Starks says, 'We're not done' By JIM STOMMEN Medical Device Daily Executive Editor SAN FRANCISCO u Dan Starks, chairman, president and CEO of St. Jude Medical (St....

Report from Europe.
January 12, 2006... Report from Europe Biopure will seek CE-marking of Hemopure in ortho surgery A Medical Device Daily Staff Report Blood substitute and oxygen therapeutics developer Biopure (Cambridge, Massachusetts) has reported that it will apply...

Study to put mechanical On-X valve to lower-drug regimen test.
January 12, 2006... Study to put mechanical On-X valve to lower-drug regimen test By DON LONG Medical Device Daily Managing Editor Cardiovascular therapies often require patients to make very tough choices. In the category of heart valve...

Financings roundup.
January 12, 2006... Financings roundup ProMetic closes on $8M round; Axela in new licensing pact A Medical Device Daily Staff Report ProMetic Life Sciences (Montreal) yesterday reported the closing of an $8 million financing. The company said it...

Briefly Noted.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2006... Briefly Noted Breast MRI CAD gets CPT code CAD Sciences (White Plains, New York) reported the creation of the first ever Category III Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code that can be used for Breast MRI CAD. The new CPT code...

Deals roundup.
January 12, 2006... Deals roundup On The Go buys Island Corp.; USPI will add nine centers A Medical Device Daily Staff Report On The Go Technologies Group (Concord, Ontario), a multi-industry computer hardware, software and peripherals VAR and systems...