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SynchroMed III

FDA approval of Synchromed III alleviates pain points for physicians, Medtronic

Oct. 13, 2023
By Annette Boyle
No one is looking in the rearview mirror at Medtronic plc as a fresh U.S. FDA approval for the next generation version of its intrathecal drug delivery system allows the company to leave behind a spate of problems associated with its Sychromed II device. The device delivers medication directly to the fluid surrounding the spinal cord via a small catheter positioned to deposit the drug at the site of most severe pain. The targeted delivery improves management of chronic and cancer-related pain as well as management of severe spasticity without use of systemic opioids.
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EU orders Illumina to sell Grail or face further fines

Oct. 12, 2023
By Shani Alexander
The European Commission (EC) has ordered Illumina Inc. to sell Grail Inc. after it closed the acquisition without approval from EU regulators. The EC said that if Illumina fails to comply with the order, the company faces fines of up to 5% of its daily aggregate revenue or up to 10% of its annual worldwide revenue.
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2023 Med Tech Conference

FDA’s Shuren says agency decidedly moving away from up-or-down vote at advisory hearings

Oct. 12, 2023
By Mark McCarty

The FDA town hall on the final day of the 2023 edition of the Med Tech Conference included the usual patter about the achievements at the agency’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), but a few useful nuggets of information nonetheless slipped through in this year’s session. CDRH director Jeff Shuren acknowledged that the agency is steering device advisory committee hearings away from votes on whether to approve a product, an approach he said is under consideration at the agency’s other product centers as well.


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Regulatory actions for Oct. 12, 2023

Oct. 12, 2023
Regulatory snapshots, including global submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Medtronic, Neoss, Orthofix Medical, Sentiar.
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2023 Med Tech Conference

EU’s notified body dilemma easing, but competent authorities continue to muddle the picture

Oct. 11, 2023
By Mark McCarty
Concerns over the EU’s agonizingly clunky roll-out of the Medical Device Regulation (MDR) has largely focused on the capacity of notified bodies to manage the task of recertifying CE marks for legacy devices, but a new problem has emerged that promises to add yet more drag to the process. Amie Smirthwaite, senior vice president for innovation at RQM+, said EU member states’ competent authorities seem bent on pressing notified bodies (NBs) to treat guidance by the Medical Device Coordination Group (MDCG) as regulation, with the net result that “you almost need guidance for the guidance” in order to successfully navigate the EU market.
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Airamed Airascore

Airamed’s AI brain software a ‘game-changer’ for early Alzheimer's diagnosis

Oct. 11, 2023
By Shani Alexander
The U.S. FDA 510(k) clearance of Airamed GmbH’s Airascore software could see millions of people benefitting from early accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia. Airascore is a medical image management and processing system that uses deep learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to assess brain volumetry data on MRI scans in as little as five minutes.
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U.S. FDA headquarters

Abiomed stung by FDA’s final guidance for clinical decision support in warning letter

Oct. 11, 2023
By Mark McCarty
The U.S. FDA’s final guidance for clinical decision support (CDS) systems may be the subject of two citizen’s petitions requesting the agency scrap the guidance and start over, but that doesn’t mean the agency is not enforcing the terms of the guidance. Danvers, Mass.-based Abiomed Inc., took in a Sept. 19 warning letter stating that the company’s Impella Connect system qualifies as a CDS product because it provides “patient-specific medical information to detect a life-threatening condition,” an interpretation that is sure to intensify the larger debate about whether the CDS final guidance is an extra-statutory exercise in regulatory engineering.
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