NuVasive (San Diego), a company that could be compared to "The Little Engine That Could" because of how much it has accomplished in a little over a decade, has just released the next version of its nerve monitoring platform with computer-assisted surgery applications, designed to enhance speed and efficiency.
This week in med-tech history: Nine years ago this week the biggest news in Medical Device Daily was Guidant’s recall of nearly 50,000 implantable defibrillators, coupled with the company’s failure to alert customers of the danger of one of the devices for nearly three years after it was aware of a problem. On June 21, 2005 MDD reported that the Guidant recall created a serious issue for Johnson & Johnson, which at that time was planning to buy Guidant for $25.4 billion. But of course when we fast forward a bit to January 2006, we know that deal never went...
The FDA has approved Edwards Lifesciences' (Irvine, California) Sapien XT transcatheter aortic heart valve for the treatment of high-risk and inoperable patients suffering from symptomatic aortic stenosis (AS). This is a next-generation, lower-profile system that includes the 29 mm valve size for patients with a large native annulus, which will allow for the treatment of more patients, the company said.
Medtronic (Minneapolis) shook up the medical technology world on Sunday with news of a mega-sized deal to acquire rival Covidien (Dublin, Ireland) for $42.9 billion in cash and stock. The transaction also will allow Medtronic to reincorporate in Ireland, where Covidien is located, thus lowering its tax burden. Interestingly, the deal is contingent on there being no new laws or regulatory actions that would make such inversion deals illegal or prevent Medtronic from capitalizing on Covidien's lower tax rate.
The topic of the transcatheter valve replacement (TAVR) market, also known as transcatheter valve implantation (TAVI), brings to mind the classic Dr. Seuss story, "Oh, the Places You'll Go."
