Nuvasive Inc. scored a win at the FDA, with the agency clearing its Pulse surgical automation platform. It is the first integrated spine surgery automation platform from the company, and it is intended to be the foundation for Surgical Intelligence, an effort to enable better surgery. Pulse brings together 2D and 3D navigation, smart imaging capabilities, as well as neuromonitoring, surgical planning, radiation reduction and patient-specific rod bending technologies.

Investors panicked sending shares of Nevro Corp. plummeting by about one-third on July 24 from about $60 to less than $40 as they sought to understand the implications of the latest news in ongoing patent litigation between Nevro and pain stimulation competitor Boston Scientific Corp. But in early trading on July 25, Wall Street gave back all of that roughly $500 million in market cap, as Nevro rebounded back up to a valuation of about $1.8 billion. These gyrations occurred around a Northern California District Court ruling that found that six method claims in three Nevro patents were valid, but that Boston Scientific currently is not infringing upon them.

The FDA has cleared a polyetheretherketone (PEEK) spinal interbody fusion device with a nanotextured surface that's designed to encourage bone growth from Vallum Corp. The Nashua, N.H. startup has raised only $6 million, which it expects could be enough to get it to sufficient data with this implant to attract a commercialization partner.