OrbiMed (New York), an investment firm focused on the healthcare sector, reported the closing of its second healthcare royalty and credit opportunities fund, OrbiMed Royalty Opportunities II, LP, with $924 million in commitments, including $24 million from the General Partner. Investors in the fund include a broad range of premier endowment, foundation, pension and other institutional investors.

AliveCor (San Francisco) reported that the FDA has granted clearance for two new algorithms giving users instant feedback on their electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings and expanding its automated interpretation service offerings. AliveCor's new analysis processes, or algorithms, include a Normal Detector designed to identify when no abnormalities are detected in an ECG recording, and an Interference Detector that identifies if factors have affected the recording making the ECG unreadable.

Medtronic (Dublin) reported results from the PainFree SST and Shock-Less clinical studies published in the journal HeartRhythm. The data show that treating patients with Medtronic implantable cardiac devices equipped with SmartShock technology, and that providing clinicians with proactive reports, help doctors deliver therapy while avoiding inappropriate and unnecessary shocks.

Medtronic (Dublin, Ireland) revealed new one-year clinical data showing that transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) with the self-expanding CoreValve system offers advantages in survival and safety compared to surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) in high risk aortic stenosis patients who have previously undergone coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery.

The ability to 3-D print biomaterial is making a profound impact on medical research and innovation. In a medical research first, investigators have used an experimental 3-D printer, a MakerBot Replicator 2X, to print a custom tracheal scaffolding, which was combined with living cells to create a tracheal segment.

Managing diabetes remotely just got easier. The FDA notified Dexcom (San Diego) late Friday that it would allow marketing of its Dexcom G4 Platinum continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system with Share.