The U.S. FDA declared that Michelle Tarver is the permanent replacement for Jeff Shuren as the director of the agency’s device center. The news is hardly a surprise as Shuren confirmed the appointment in an October 2024 public meeting.

Baxter International Inc., whose North Cove manufacturing site in Marion, North Carolina, was significantly impacted by the rain and storm surge from Hurricane Helene – including flooding of the facility – in September, reported that restoring the physical facilities has exceeded its expectations, with meaningful advances in site cleanup and remediation.

The U.S. FDA urged doctors and patients to use CT imaging if possible, when the MRI compatibility of any electronic implanted devices is unknown because problems with CT imaging are "extremely low" in these circumstances.

Boston Scientific Corp. racked up a two-fer from the U.S. FDA with approval of its navigation-enabled Farawave Nav ablation catheter and 510(k) clearance for the Faraview software for use with its Farapulse pulsed field ablation (PFA) system.

The speculation as to the status of Michelle Tarver, the acting director of the U.S. FDA’s device center, is officially over despite disclaimers at. The outgoing director, Jeff Shuren, said Tarver “will make a great center director” in remarks during an Oct. 17 public appearance, thus cementing Tarver’s role at FDA.

Nowdiagnostics Inc. established an exclusive agreement with Labcorp Holdings Inc. for distribution of its First To Know syphilis test in the U.S. The test provides results in 15 minutes with as little as a single drop of blood. The test will be available to hospitals and clinicians by the end of 2024 and offered to patients directly through Labcorp Ondemand in 2025.

Medtronic plc received U.S. FDA approval to undertake an early feasibility study of its dual-energy Affera cardiac ablation system in sustained ventricular tachycardia. Affera combines both radiofrequency and pulsed field ablation technologies in the Sphere-9 catheter along with high-density mapping.

Coming on the heels of an advisory committee in which the U.S. FDA and its independent advisers grappled with trying to fit an ultra-rare disease development program into the confines of the agency’s “significant evidence” requirements, an Oct. 16 public meeting on a Rare Disease Innovation Hub the agency is setting up seemed like a welcome step in the right direction for rare disease patients, their caregivers and companies working in the space.

Novocure GmbH secured U.S. FDA approval for Optune Lua, a wearable device that delivers alternating electric fields or tumor treating fields that kill cancer cells. Indicated for use with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors or docetaxel in the second or subsequent line for the treatment of metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer following the failure of platinum-based regimens, the approval was driven by the significant improvement in overall survival rates seen in the LUNAR pivotal study for Optune Lua.