December has been a busy month for Reverse Medical (Irvine, California), when it comes to securing approvals for its products. Earlier this month, the firm reported FDA clearance for its MVP-5 Micro Vascular Plug system for peripheral vessel embolization (Medical Device Daily, Dec. 12, 2013).

Researchers in a new study are saying that coronary artery calcium (CAC) screening should play a more prominent role in helping determine a person's risk for heart attack and heart disease-related death, as well as the need for angioplasty or bypass surgery.

A problem that some astronauts face is the development of serious visual impairment conditions that are associated symptoms suggestive of elevated pressure on the brain, or increased intracranial pressure. This has prompted the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI), a non-profit organization that is funded by NASA to partner with Vittamed (Boston), a med-tech firm that has developed a device to could non-invasively measure absolute intracranial pressure (ICP), to initiate a clinical research study.

Tired of going through venture capitalists to get funding, Theradome (Pleasanton, California) founder/CEO Tamim Hamid PhD turned to an alternative means of gaining access to capital - crowdfunding.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International (Laval, Quebec) said that it has entered into a definitive agreement under which it will acquire all of the outstanding common stock of Solta Medical (Hayward, California) for $250 million. Valeant said that it will pay about $2.92 per share in cash, which represents a 40% premium to Solta's closing share price on Dec. 13, 2013, the last trading day prior to announcement, or a transaction value of approximately $250 million.