A Medical Device Daily

The University of Akron (Ohio) said it signed a technology licensing agreement with Boston Scientific (Natick, Massachusetts), which expands the company’s rights to a family of polymers developed by researchers at the university for use in medical devices.

The expanded license includes the use of these materials in the development of implantable electronic devices such as pacemakers, where the polymers can be used on the pacemaker leads. Boston Scientific has made “significant” strategic investments in the cardiac rhythm management area, which includes pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators, most notably through its acquisition of Guidant (Indianapolis) in April (Medical Device Daily, April 24, 2006).

Boston Scientific first used this polymer technology in the development of its Taxus drug-eluting cardiovascular stent system, the university said. The Taxus stent releases the drug paclitaxel in a controlled manner from the UA polymer to prevent coronary artery tissue from reclogging the stent following implantation in the coronary artery.

“This is yet another example of how academia and business can collaborate on products and processes that can directly and favorably improve the health and well-being of millions of people,” said George Newkome, UA vice president for research and dean of the graduate school.

The UA material is based on a copolymer of polystyrene and polyisobutylene, called SIBS, which features modifiable triblock morphology. The polymer can be designed to release drugs over different time spans. Boston Scientific has demonstrated the polymer’s biostability and biocompatibility.

In other agreements news:

• MediPurpose (Atlanta) reported an exclusive distribution agreement for the Sangofer blood separation system, patented and manufactured by the Heim Group (Gladbeck, Germany). The distribution agreement allows MediPurpose to sell and market the Sangofer system in North and Central America.

MediPurpose aims to introduce the system to the U.S. blood transfusion market after obtaining approval from the FDA. The Sangofer system is designed to allow technicians to separate fresh donor blood into plasma and red blood cell components using the effect of gravity without the need for centrifuge systems.

The system can be put into place in the field, requires minimal supervision or staff, and does not require specialized cooling, storage, or even electricity. The system is made possible by the use of two specialized, gravity-fed filters which separate the leukocytes, red blood cells and plasma.

Randy Prather, vice president of sales and marketing for MediPurpose, said, “The Sangofer system is a new technique in harvesting blood from donors, and a quantum leap in the ability of laboratories and blood centers to efficiently, safely and economically draw and separate blood products for later use in the healthcare system.”

The new agreement takes effect immediately; however, sales and marketing of the Sangofer product in the U.S. will take place after FDA approval.

MediPurpose was founded in 1999 as SurgiLance. The company launched its first product, the One-Step Safety Lancet, in September 2000. The company changed its name this month to MediPurpose.

• Fujitsu Computer Products of America (Sunnyvale, California), a supplier of computer products including hard disk drives, peripherals and biometric security solutions, and Suncoast Solutions (Largo, Florida), which focuses on hospice, palliative care, and end-of-life software, reported that they are teaming up to provide a “high-security” application that will deliver biometric authentication and password management for healthcare environments.

Using Fujitsu PalmSecure technology and Suncoast’s software system, users are expected to benefit from new features including single sign on function as well as password management that is contactless and hygienic, ensuring “rapid and highly secure” access to mission critical applications, the company said.

Suncoast helps hospices and home health agencies manage the full breadth of processes and data tracking as patients move in and out of each phase of the continuum of care.

• Illumina (San Diego) reported an agreement with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Baltimore), in collaboration with researchers at the National Human Genome Center at Howard University (Washington), to use the Infinium HumanHap650Y BeadChip for an asthma study of more than 2,000 individuals and their families.

The study will be led by Kathleen Barnes of Johns Hopkins and is supported by a recent grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH; Bethesda, Maryland). Study subjects involve African-American volunteers from the Baltimore-Washington area, and African-Caribbean volunteers and their family members from Barbados.

“The identification of genes that contribute to a complex disease like asthma may lead to the development of enhanced diagnostic tools, early detection and improved health outcomes for patients and their families,” said Jay Flatley, Illumina president and CEO. “By using Illumina’s HumanHap650Y BeadChip, which is specifically designed for the study of African populations, a unique opportunity exists to dramatically improve our understanding of the causes of asthma.”

Illumina’s HumanHap650Y Genotyping BeadChip enables whole-genome genotyping of more than 655,000 tag SNP markers derived from the International HapMap Projecton a single BeadChip. Of these tag SNPs, over 100,000 Yoruba-specific tag SNPs were added to the HumanHap550 BeadChip to provide even more comprehensive coverage for populations of African descent. The HumanHap650Y BeadChip is powered by the Infinium Assay, which enables intelligent SNP selection through unrestricted locus selection.