Diabetes is the first med-tech sphere that is coalescing for Verily Life Sciences LLC, but cardiology could be next. The South San Francisco-based business that’s part of Google parent Alphabet Inc. has received a second FDA clearance for its Verily Study Watch as an irregular pulse monitor. After a 2017 debut, it was first cleared by the agency about a year ago for use to take an on-demand electrocardiogram (ECG).
Biointellisense Inc. received good news from the U.S. FDA, which gave its nod to the company’s Biosticker on-body sensor for scalable remote care. The Biosticker allows for continuous monitoring of vital signs and actionable insights, delivered to clinicians from patients in the home setting. The goal is to help in the early detection of potentially avoidable complications.
With four gene therapies already approved and more than 900 in development, the FDA has finalized six guidances and issued a draft guidance to clarify the rules of the road for developing and manufacturing the treatments.
Tempe, Ariz.-based Gt Medical Technologies Inc. has won the U.S. FDA’s nod for an expanded indication for Gammatile therapy. With this decision, patients with newly diagnosed malignant brain tumors now are eligible to receive the FDA-cleared surgically targeted radiation therapy. Gammatile therapy offers an option vs. waiting several weeks for surgical wound healing before beginning treatment. Previously, the therapy was available for individuals with recurrent brain tumors.
Matthew Ros, chief strategy and business officer for Epizyme Inc., said the company is “not providing specific guidance at the moment” about the sales force that will be deployed to market Tazverik (tazemetostat) in follicular lymphoma (FL), an indication for which U.S. regulators are considering the oral, first-in-class EZH2 inhibitor. “But I can assure you we’ve planned very thoughtfully” about the effort, he said. “That's always been a part of why we thought epithelioid sarcoma [ES] was such a strategically important component of the overall business strategy to get on-the-ground experience.” The sales force numbers 19 for now.
The controversy over the use of paclitaxel-bearing devices in the femoropopliteal arteries is far from over. Now, a new medical journal article makes a similar claim about mortality in connection with the use of these devices in the infrapopliteal arteries, threatening once again to take a bite out of utilization.
Ra Medical Systems Inc., of Carlsbad, Calif., reported that the U.S. FDA has granted investigational device exemption (IDE) approval to study its DABRA excimer laser system as an atherectomy device to treat peripheral vascular stenosis.
Dublin-based Medtronic plc has snagged the U.S. FDA’s approval for its Micra AV, the world’s smallest pacemaker with atrioventricular (AV) synchrony. The company said it will begin rolling out the device at a limited number of medical centers in the upcoming weeks, with a full, nationwide launch sometime this spring. About the size of a large vitamin pill, the leadless Micra AV is indicated for the treatment of patients with AV block, a disorder that occurs when the electrical signal traveling from the atria, or upper chambers of the heart, to the ventricles, or lower chambers, is impaired.
A new report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) revives the question of U.S. FDA regulation of lab-developed tests (LDTs). However, attorney Jeffrey Shapiro, of Washington-based Hyman Phelps & McNamara PC, told BioWorld that the agency is no longer in a position to unilaterally impose a regulatory regime on LDTs, and that there is little likelihood that any enabling legislation will pass until at least 2021.
The U.S. FDA has granted breakthrough device designation to Mojo Vision Inc. for its first-of-a-kind true smart contact lens. The Mojo Lens, which features “invisible computing” and a built-in display, enables people to get timely information without having to look away from what they are doing or glance at a screen.
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