2015 was another of those years with some interesting developments, some good, some bad. The biggest news of the year is that the device tax has been suspended for two years as a result of the budget deal between the GOP-led Congress and the Obama administration, but the tax presumably kicks back in as of January 2018. That's not necessarily a problem for industry if recent electoral trends hold. One question is why the administration agreed to the device tax suspension despite President Obama's avowed opposition to any change to the tax. The answer starts...

Stimrelieve LLC (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) reported it received an IDE from the FDA to launch a clinical trial of its percutaneously implantable device for the treatment of chronic migraines when compared to more conservative therapies such as NSAIDs, migraine-specific drugs, or combination drug therapy.