The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has once again ruled on a patent dispute between Masimo Corp., of Irvine, Calif., and a rival firm, this time with Sotera Wireless Inc., of San Diego serving as the adversary. The Federal Circuit sided with Sotera in decreeing that 17 claims in Masimo’s RE47,218 (the ’218 patent) are invalidated due to the existence of prior art that rendered the claims obvious, but the irony in this litigation is that one of the patents cited by Sotera as prior art, the 6,597,933 patent, was authored in part by Joe Kiani, the founder, CEO and board chairman of Masimo.
At the same time it reported U.S. FDA clearance for bedside software to diagnose electrographic status epilepticus (ESE) seizures, Ceribell Inc. declared Claritypro the first ICU monitoring device to receive an NTAP reimbursement from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The clearance of Claritypro to diagnose ESE follows receipt of an FDA breakthrough device designation in two different categories in the past year, setting the stage, Ceribell CEO Jane Chao told BioWorld, for expanded access to critical seizure diagnosis technology.
Aion Biosystems Inc. may be operating at a fever pitch right now, with FDA 510(k) clearance in hand for the company’s Itempshield device, which provides continuous measurement of body temperature. The company is targeting use of the quarter-sized device for patients with cancer and individuals in long-term care.
A timely discharge from the hospital requires that a lot of things go just right, and GE Healthcare just scored a win from FDA for its Portrait vital signs monitoring system that offers wireless, wearable tracking of oxygenation, pulse and respiration rate. GE said this system allows patients to be mobile during those first few critical hours post-surgery while providing non-stop vital sign tracking, a development that may allow clinicians to intervene more quickly when problems arise and thus help the patient recover and head home without setbacks.
With a bruising battle with its largest investor barely behind it, Masimo Corp.’s preliminary second quarter results came in nearly $100 million below consensus, putting management in an even tougher position now that it has two new investor-aligned board members. Share price plunged from $147.16 to $110 following the after-hours announcement on Monday. By the closing bell on Tuesday, shares had recovered modestly to $117.73.
Cardiorenal SAS reported it has been granted a breakthrough device designation by the U.S. FDA for its Tenor at-home blood potassium measuring device. The Tenor smart device combines multiple technologies, app and cloud capabilities to assist patients with chronic kidney disease in measuring their blood potassium levels from home, obtaining results in under five minutes.
Braintale SAS unveiled an updated version of its digital biomarkers platform with new features including advance options for patient monitoring. This version is also CE-marked under the new EU Regulation, MDR 2017/745. The company said this latest version of Braintale-care sees important improvements for all users, with superior security and usability alongside additional available biomarkers. “This significant enrichment allows deployment of our platform to a growing number of customers for the benefit of patients and people in the industry,” Jean-Baptiste Martini, chief technology officer of Braintale, told BioWorld.
Biobeat Technologies Ltd. expanded its U.S. FDA-cleared remote patient monitoring offerings with a double nod from the agency for its sensors to monitor stroke volume and cardiac output. The two new indications join its capabilities for measuring the five vital signs assessed in any medical visit—blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation, pulse rate, respiratory rate and body temperature—all of which can be done using photoplethysmography (PPG) on sensors embedded on either a short-term chest patch or a more durable wrist monitor.
The U.S. FDA has granted Opticyte Inc. a breakthrough device designation for its Cell O2 patient monitor, a noninvasive technology for monitoring patients at risk of organ failure. The device could help to reduce serious illness and deaths by alerting clinicians to patients experiencing organ failure before irreversible damage occurs.
After years of aggressive acquisitions, Medtronic plc joined 3M Co., General Electric Co. and Johnson & Johnson in rationalizing its business by splitting into more focused enterprises. Medtronic will separate its patient monitoring and respiratory therapy groups into a new company with projected annual revenue of $2.2 billion and 8,000 employees in the next 12 to 18 months, assuming regulatory and final board approvals.
