Backbeat Medical Inc. is seeking patent protection for methods and systems for controlling blood pressure to either treat hypertension by using a first electrical stimulation pattern that reduces both systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure.
Biospectal SA has received a CE MDR class IIa medical device certification for its optical fingertip blood pressure monitoring app, Optibp. The device records fingertip blood flow optically and transforms the information into a pulse wave that it analyzes to estimate blood pressure.
Recor Medical Inc. finally received U.S. FDA approval for its Paradise ultrasound renal denervation (RDN) system for the treatment of hypertension after more than ten years of research and clinical trials. Paradise is the first RDN system to reach the U.S. market, and its approval is good news for the technology after years of disappointment in the data from trials and concerns over the efficacy of RDN devices.
Researchers from Case Western Reserve University have filed for patent protection for a system and method for treating obesity or other gastric and/or metabolic disorders via closed-loop vagus nerve stimulation.
Danish obesity and diabetes drugmaker Novo Nordisk A/S is set to acquire the Singapore-based KBP Biosciences Co. Ltd.’s hypertension drug, ocedurenone (KBP-5074), for potentially $1.3 billion, creating a platform to increase its reach in the cardiovascular (CV) landscape beyond a crowding obesity market.
Calcineurin inhibitors used in clinics – including immunosuppressants for transplant rejection and autoimmune disease treatment – may cause persistent hypertension. Calcineurin inhibitors elevate sympathetic vasomotor activity by decreasing calcineurin activity and potentiating N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) activity in the hypothalamus. However, how these inhibitors promote NMDAR activity in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus to increase sympathetic vasomotor activity remains unknown.
Dublin-based Medtronic plc. has invested considerable resources into its renal denervation program, but the company has not completed its regulatory journey for the U.S. market just yet. Medtronic failed to persuade an FDA advisory committee of the virtues of its Symplicity Spyral device due to inconsistent results from the two major studies presented at the hearing but vowed to keep working on the application despite the sustained headwinds.
The age of renal denervation as a treatment for hypertension may have finally arrived in the U.S. with the affirmative U.S. FDA advisory vote for the Paradise system for renal denervation by Recor Medical Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif. The 12-member advisory committee vote unanimously that the data suggested the ultrasound-based device was safe and voted 8-3 in support of the Paradise’s efficacy, an outcome that the agency may find difficult to refute, given the large public health impact of hypertension in the U.S.
Alnylam Pharmaceutical Inc. hopes to tap into Roche Holding AG’s global footprint with its early-stage hypertension RNAi therapeutic, zilebesiran, selling development and commercialization rights to the pharma giant for up to $2.8 billion with a view to extending the drug’s future reach beyond the U.S market.
