A Medical Device Daily

HemoSense (San Jose, California) said that it has signed an agreement with Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp; Burlington, North Carolina) to supply the HemoSense portable INRatio PT/INR monitoring system to identified LabCorp laboratories.

The INRatio system will also be made available to selected LabCorp patient service centers and affiliated physician offices nationwide.

HemoSense's INRatio system consists of a small, portable meter and disposable test strips that provide a quick measurement of blood-clotting time, known as a PT/INR value. This test helps patients reduce the risk of strokes through frequent monitoring of anticoagulation therapy.

"[T]his agreement with LabCorp is one more step toward our goal of increasing the HemoSense share of a growing market in patient blood coagulation monitoring," said Timothy Still, executive VP and chief commercial officer of HemoSense. "Monitoring patients' PT/INR levels at the point-of-care can help improve the treatment, health and lifestyle of patients taking warfarin."

HemoSense's INRatio system is designed to reduce the time and inconvenience required to manage warfarin and allows patients to play an active role in management of their warfarin dosage.

The INRatio system is based on a proprietary electrochemical technology that generates rapid PT/INR results simultaneously with two levels of quality control from a single drop of blood. Patient training is straightforward and test strips can be stored at room temperature for up to one year.

The INRatio system is sold through distributors in the U.S. and 23 other countries.

In other agreements:

Smith & Nephew Orthopaedic Trauma & Clinical Therapies (S&N; Memphis) said that it has entered into an agreement with Teknimed (Toulouse, France) to sell Teknimed's Spine Fix product in North America, Europe and Australia.

The Spine Fix product, used to treat painful compression fractures in the spine, is a ready-to-use, self-hardening bone cement injected into the vertebrae through a minimally invasive procedure known as a vertebroplasty or kyphoplasty.

Spine Fix is designed to be a low-risk procedure that offers patients reduction in pain and an improvement in mobility, the company said. The procedure can take less than one hour, and pain relief can be felt as quickly as 25 minutes following the procedure.

"More than 700,000 spinal compression fractures occur each year, as a result of traumatic accidents or osteoporosis, and can result in back pain, pressure on the spinal cord, limited mobility and loss of height," said Mark Augusti, president, Orthopaedic Trauma & Clinical Therapies.

Spine Fix was approved for use in Europe in 2003 and in the U.S. in 2006. The product has been launched in Europe, and S&N will roll out the product to the U.S. market in 3Q07.