A Medical Device Daily
Micell Technologies (Raleigh, North Carolina) said it has entered into a strategic agreement with Maxcor (New York), the newly incorporated subsidiary of Opto Circuits (OCI; Bangalore, India). Micell has obtained the rights to Maxcor's Genius MAGIC Cobalt Chromium Coronary Stent System to develop and market drug-eluting stents (DES) based on Micell's coating technology.
The system was developed and is marketed in Europe by EuroCor (Bonn, Germany), another subsidiary of Opto Circuits. The companies also entered into an agreement to develop drug-eluting balloon (DEB) products for cardiovascular applications.
Micell's technology provides for a unique way for the delivery of drugs within bioabsorbable polymers. The company has developed a drug-polymer formulation that can precisely and consistently control drug elution and the duration of polymer exposure.
As a result, Micell's coating has the potential to deliver a precise therapeutic solution for coronary artery disease without the long-term safety concerns of currently available drug-eluting stents. The in-licensing of the Genius MAGIC Cobalt Chromium Coronary Stent System provides the optimal bare-metal stent product for the further development of the company's drug-polymer coating. In addition, the company believes that DEB will advance the treatment of many clinical conditions while minimizing risks or side effects of these treatments.
Arthur Benvenuto, chairman/CEO of Micell, said, "Our scalable drug and polymer coating process serves as a platform for the development of innovative interventional cardiology systems. We are most impressed with OCI and the high quality and deliverability of their cardiovascular products. Indeed we look forward to working together to accelerate the development of new products that have the potential of improving patient care."
Vinod Ramnani, chairman and managing director, OCI, said, "The science of medicating an interventional device is highly complex and requires exceptional clinical expertise and know-how. We are proud to begin working with Micell which has a strong intellectual property portfolio in this arena and which we hope will help give momentum to our jointly developed new products in new and regulated markets."
In other agreements and contracts news, Outcome Sciences (Cambridge, Massachusetts) reported that it has been approved to transmit data for the Joint Commission Children's Asthma Care (CAC) performance measure set.
The Joint Commission, in collaboration with national children's healthcare organizations, has developed a subset of CAC measures for inclusion in the ORYX performance measurement initiative. The Joint Commission's ORYX initiative integrates outcomes and other performance measurement data into the accreditation process and supports Joint Commission accredited organizations in their quality improvement efforts.
• DestinationRx (Los Angeles), an online resource that helps people choose health plans and medications, has integrated with Google Health (Mountain View, California) to offer more personalized tools to manage their healthcare decisions. The integration lets Google Health members link their online medical profile to DestinationRx so they can compare drug plans and find safe medication alternatives or compare prescription side effects.