Bard Peripheral Vascular Inc., agreed to pay $7.2 million to settle allegations that two photoplethysmography products it distributed were the subject of illicit Medicare claims, a problem the company inherited when it decided to do business with Semler Scientific Inc. of Campbell, Calif.
The U.K. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence unveiled a plan that is designed to provide less cumbersome market access for medical technologies.
About five months after the U.S. FDA disclosed its roadmap to move away from animal testing in favor of new approaches for biopharma drug development, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) said it is awarding $87 million in contracts over three years to launch the Standardized Organoid Modeling Center.
The U.S. FDA issued a pair of final guidances this week, including one that outlines the criteria for authorizing emergency use of unapproved in vitro diagnostic tests during future public health emergencies and another on software assurance in computer and data processing systems for medical device production.
Kent Imaging Inc. received CE marking for its SnapshotNIR imaging device which uses near-infrared spectroscopy to measure oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin in the microvasculature. The non-invasive point-of-care device provides real-time data to clinicians to help them make decisions which can change the trajectory of a wound, from chronic and non-healing, into a healing one, significantly improving the patient’s quality of life.
The struggle to avoid a partial U.S. government shutdown at midnight Sept. 30 is getting a lot of attention, as the stakes increase every day of the political standoff. Meanwhile, Sept. 30 also could be the end of the 43-year-old Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, which has been a funding boon for biotech and med-tech startups, if Congress can’t come together on a reauthorization bill.
Heartflow Inc. hasn’t skipped a beat in pumping out good news, with U.S. FDA 510(k) clearance for its next-gen plaque analysis algorithm and platform and Cigna coverage across all lines of coverage starting in October. The new algorithm improves plaque detection 21% compared to the first version of Heartflow’s algorithm.
Convatec Group plc secured CE mark and UKCA approvals for Convamatrix, its porcine placenta-based wound dressing designed for hard-to-heal wounds. The single use, skin substitute product is intended to cover, protect and provide a moist wound environment to support the body’s natural healing process.
The second day’s meeting of the U.S. CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) took up guidelines related to COVID-19 vaccines, of which an outspoken skeptic is Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy – who in June fired all 17 members of ACIP and replaced them with names more to his liking.
Medtronic plc received U.S. FDA approval for Altaviva, a minimally invasive implantable tibial neuromodulation device designed to treat urge urinary incontinence. Insertion near the ankle requires neither sedation nor imaging and patients walk out the clinic door with the device already activated.
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