CLEVELAND – Monday featured a big announcement during the 2019 Medical Innovation Summit, with the Cleveland Clinic and American Well revealing that they are partnering to create a joint venture (JV) focused on telehealth. The venture, dubbed The Clinic for now, was conceived "in order to achieve our joint vision and our ambitions in how to revise the delivery of care and to be at the forefront of it," said Semih Sen, chief business development officer, Cleveland Clinic, as part of a keynote delivered by Roy Schoenberg, president and CEO of Boston-based American Well.
Foundation Medicine Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., has had a busy fall, and it is showing no signs of letting up. For example, in the next 12 to 18 months, the company has high hopes for its Foundationone Liquid test, David Fabrizio, VP, product development, told BioWorld MedTech during a visit to its headquarters last month as the Medtech Conference wrapped up in Boston. "This is one that we are actively engaged in with FDA and planning to submit and hopefully get approval and launch mid-next year," he added.
Think Surgical Inc., of Fremont, Calif., won good news from the U.S. FDA, which cleared the company's Tsolution One total knee application for use in total knee arthroplasty (TKA). The Tsolution One total knee application includes computed tomography-based 3D presurgical planning software, providing surgeons the ability to design and prepare the patient's knee joint replacement plan. During surgery, the physician puts the patient's pre-planned procedure using the robot into effect, with the goal of precisely placing the knee implants.
Medtronic plc, of Dublin, has had a busy week. On Tuesday, it reported that it had received breakthrough device designation from the U.S. FDA for its Valiant TAAA stent graft system for the minimally invasive repair of thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm (TAAA).
Angiodynamics Inc., of Latham, N.Y., is picking up Rehovot, Israel-based Eximo Medical Ltd. for $46 million up front and up to $20 million of contingent consideration related to certain technical and revenue milestones. Eximo offers laser atherectomy technology that is in a limited launch.
Lantheus Holdings, of North Billerica, Mass., has entered a deal to acquire New York-based Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc., which develops medicines and other technologies to target and treat cancer. "This transaction leverages our core capabilities, including proven commercial and operational expertise while diversifying our revenue stream by broadening our presence in emerging uses of radioisotopes in precision diagnostics as well as the exciting field of radiopharmaceuticals in oncology treatment," Lantheus President and CEO Mary Anne Heino said on a call related to the deal.
Looking to help patients requiring imaging of lungs or other internal structures, researchers from the NIH and Siemens Healthineers AG, of Erlangen, Germany, have developed a high-performance, low magnetic-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system that also could prove safer for those with pacemakers or defibrillators.
Abbott Laboratories had a busy Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) 2019 conference. Among the news it generated was the unveiling of new analyses of the COAPT trial on the cost-effectiveness of Mitraclip vs. guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) alone in heart failure patients with secondary mitral regurgitation (MR).
