Although many companies have fallen short in developing a truly effective minimally invasive device for the treatment of chronic GERD, Torax Medical’s co-founder, president, and CEO Todd Berg believes the company’s new Linx Reflux Management System will find success because it is fundamentally unlike anything else that has come before. In an interview with Medtech Insight, Berg discussed the Linx device, the GERD market, and the company’s strategies for success.
In an effort to dramatically reduce the complications associated with bloodstream infections and their progression to sepsis,
ExThera Medical Corp. has developed a whole blood affinity therapy device for use in an extracorporeal circuit. Similar in concept to a filter for a swimming pool, the compact Seraph Microbind Affinity Blood Filter has the unique ability to safely remove a wide range of pathogens and toxins from the blood by employing immobilized heparin.
In late December 2012, Covidien announced a definitive agreement to acquire drug-coated balloon company CV Ingenuity for an undisclosed amount. Covidien joins large cardiovascular device players such as Medtronic, which gained a drug-coated balloon when it acquired Invatec in 2010, and CR Bard, which has the lead in the US market as a result of its acquisition last year of Lutonix Inc. as well as a large number of DCB companies based in Europe.
The agency called an advisory committee meeting and public comment period to collect feedback from device firms and others on effects that extreme weather and natural disasters pose to medical device safety and quality.
Latin America’s 30-year transition toward urbanization and economic growth has opened up a huge opportunity for medical device companies to provide treatment solutions for the “diseases of affluence” that are now common in the region. Device imports into Latin America totaled nearly $8 billion in 2009 and import growth is expected to remain strong going forward, particularly in Brazil and Mexico. The outlook is particularly positive for the heart and vascular disease markets.
Certain medtech companies might benefit from looking to the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) as a new funding source that will help get them ready for venture funding or expansion into new markets. The CHCF Health Innovation Fund is authorized to provide up to $3 million (with most deals falling in the $250,000 to $1 million range) in debt or convertible equity to health care companies that meet the private non-profit foundation’s goals of increasing access to care for low-income patients or reducing costs.
Device manufacturers are developing several next-generation devices for the minimally invasive treatment of obesity. Many of these emerging devices not only mimic the restriction and malabsorption mechanisms involved in bariatric surgery, but are also designed to influence the metabolic responses that are key to losing weight, improving outcomes, and impacting chronic disease.
Several new modalities are poised to change the way breast cancer screenings and diagnostics are performed as physicians and patients continue to search for technologies that can do more than standard X-rays. Ultrasound, computed tomography, and 3-D imaging are being touted as ways to improve the detection of tumors – especially in women with dense breast tissue – as well as to reduce exposure to radiation. Currently, the market is dominated by large, established manufacturers, but some new players are bringing in innovative options that are poised to push the field forward.
Each year, START-UP reviews the sectors of the medical device industry that received private funding to see what will be filling the pipelines of medical device companies in the future. Despite gloomy talk by VCs and strategics predicting a future scarcity of new innovative products, the actual data from 2012 show many categories holding steady and pockets of up-and-coming technologies attracting investment.
A profound redefinition of the role of many cell types and biomaterials in regenerative medicine is under way as researchers have moved away from the notion that cells introduced into the body will integrate and become functioning tissue.
