A Medical Device Daily
Telesso Technologies Limited (Sydney, Australia) said it has entered into a strategic agreement with Vascular Pathways (VPI; California), a Delaware company based in California, to fund a multi-center clinical trial of VPI's guidewire device and to potentially acquire VPI.
A peripheral vein is the most common site for insertion of a catheter for short-term diagnostic or therapeutic use. The catheter is placed into the peripheral vein in the arm, below the elbow and is typically passed up inside the vein to a length of 2" to 3".
VPI's technology uses a retractable nitinol guidewire system that Telesso anticipates will result in faster and more reliable peripheral IV placement with less patient discomfort. Telesso said it believes that VPI's device is the first clinically meaningful advancement in peripheral IV access since automatic needle retraction catheters and addresses significant unmet needs in peripheral intravenous access.
Telesso expects that VPI's clinical trials will be conducted at hospitals in the U.S. and Israel.
"I am delighted to enter into this relationship with Telesso Technologies," said Peter Rosenthal, PhD, a member of VPI's board. "Since our technology already has FDA approval, our clinical trial of roughly 300 patients is designed to be a side-by-side comparison with traditional catheters to clearly measure our device's distinct advantages." Trial sites have been identified and the trial is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2009.
In other agreements/contracts news:
• Eklin Medical Systems (Santa Clara, California) said it has signed a letter of intent with Zonare Medical Systems (Mountain View, California), a developer of premium ultrasound systems, for the distribution of Zonare's z.one ultrasound system to the equine veterinary care market in North America and select countries internationally.
The z.one ultrasound system is a premium-quality, convertible ultrasound platform based on proprietary Zone Sonography technology. Veterinary care providers are able to easily convert the z.one system from a full-featured, cart-based system into a cutting-edge, hand-held ultrasound system without sacrificing image quality or performance.
• National Jewish Health (Denver) and Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp; Burlington, North Carolina) reported an agreement to collaborate in the development and commercialization of molecular diagnostic tests in support of personalized medicine. According to the companies, the collaboration combines National Jewish Health's strengths in molecular diagnostics and respiratory, immune, and related diseases with LabCorp's national leadership in personalized medicine and esoteric testing.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
• Troux Technologies (Austin, Texas) said that Bayer HealthCare (Leverkusen, Germany) has selected its software to help reduce complexity within its overall IT landscape and help Bayer's IT transformational efforts. The Troux Transformation Platform was selected for its flexibility, its ability to provide insights into complexities of the IT infrastructure and its scalability across a global IT organization, the companies noted.
• SigmaCare (New York) reported winning a contract to deploy electronic medical records (EMR) throughout Metropolitan Jewish Health System's (New York) skilled nursing facilities.
• Premier Purchasing Partners (San Diego) reported a new agreement for blunt cannula access devices with BD (Franklin Lakes, New Jersey). Effective Jan. 1, the 36-month agreement is available to acute-care and continuum-of-care members of the Premier alliance.
• MediPurpose (Norcross, Georgia) said it has recently renewed contracts with group purchasing organizations Novation, AmeriNet, Consorta and MedAssets for provision of SurgiLance safety lancets.
SurgiLance safety lancets are used for blood sampling at the point of care. MediPurpose offers six, color-coded lancets – four needles and two blades – with varying depths and gauges.