A Medical Device Daily

ITGI Medical (Or Akiva, Israel) reported that its second heterologous tissue-covered stent, AneuGraft, has received CE-mark approval.

AneuGraft is a stent completely covered with a heterologous tissue, designed to set a barrier between the coronary blood vessel wall and its lumen. It is intended for use in tortuous vessels.

"[The] AneuGraft Pericardium Covered Stent (PCS) is especially suitable for patients with tortuous vessels where other covered stents may not be adequate for use due to limitations resulting from tortuous anatomy," said CEO Efri Argaman.

The company said receipt of the CE mark approval for the AneuGraft stent will enable it to provide "a wide range of coronary interventional solutions for all those situations that need to set a barrier between the vessel wall and its lumen, despite the anatomical limitations."

The stent is mounted on a delivery system designed to improve navigability of the stent in tortuous vessels.

Second in a series of heterologous tissue-covered stents under development by ITGI Medical, AneuGraft PCS is indicated for treatment of bypass stenosis, aneurysms and for emergency situations such as perforations in tortuous vessels.

Over and Under is the first in the company's line of heterologous covered stents designed to treat coronary lesions and aneurysms.

Biggest RIS/PACS contract for Sectra

Sectra (Linköping, Sweden) said the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety in Northern Ireland will implement an integrated solution for managing radiology information and images (RIS/PACS) provided by the company through a 10-year agreement. Sectra said the contract is valued at GBP 30 million and represents its largest order to date.

The solution will be used throughout the entire public healthcare system in Northern Ireland.

The company noted that there is growing demand for efficient, integrated RIS/PACS solutions that enable sharing of information and reading of images generated at several hospitals.

"This major project is unique in the way it links together so many hospitals for a totally seamless workflow of images and information throughout their entire public healthcare system," says Jan Wolffram, managing director of Sectra in the UK and Ireland.

Northern Ireland has about 1.8 million inhabitants and nearly 1 million radiology examinations are carried out every year. The installation includes some 25 hospitals, organized in five trusts.

Sectra develops IT systems and products for radiology, mammography and orthopedic departments. More than 950 hospitals worldwide use the system, together performing in excess of 45 million radiology examinations annually.

The company was founded in 1978 and has its roots in the Linköping Institute of Technology. Sectra has offices in 11 countries and operates through partners worldwide.

Cook Medical expanding Irish plant

The Irish government said this week that Cook Medical (Bloomington, Indiana) will generate 200 new jobs through the expansion of its manufacturing plant in the city of Limerick.

Cook Medical, which already has nearly 500 employees in Limerick making devices for use in urology, gastroenterology and women's health, will invest €25 million ($35.79 million) in the facility expansion.

In a statement, Deputy Prime Minister Mary Coughlan hailed the news as "another fantastic development for the thriving medical technology industry in Ireland."

Cook reportedly plans to make Limerick the sole global manufacturing site for its new Zilver PTX stent to treat peripheral artery disease.

The U.S. firm, which has facilities in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, had 2007 revenues of $1.25 billion.

Agreement covers inhaled treatments

Activaero (Gemunden, Germany), which calls itself the world leader in controlled breathing technologies for inhaled therapeutic agents, reported a licensing and option agreement with Bayer HealthCare (Leverkusen, Germany) on the development of inhaled treatments.

Under the new accord, Activaero will receive an up-front payment and if the option is picked up, subsequently milestone payments as well.

Dr. Gerhard Scheuch, founder/CEO of Activaero, said, "We believe that pulmonary administration of drugs has a huge potential for the treatment of lung diseases and diseases which start in the lung. With this in mind, it will be exciting to develop innovative therapies with Bayer HealthCare, a worldwide leader in the pharmaceutical business for decades."

With stand-alone inhalation products and inhalation systems available for clinical trials and marketing partnerships, Activaero said its technologies "allow for the most precise and efficient patient-tailored pulmonary delivery."

The company has two products on the market — Akita, a patient-tailored, controlled breathing system with a smart card that records the patient dosing parameters, and Watchhaler, a hand-held delivery system tailored specifically to children.

Activaero also offers a range of technologies aimed at the controlled delivery of inhaled therapeutics in clinical trials and tailored to specific partnerships.