Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) is an established method for gaining an appreciation of the sources of closure of the coronary arteries, but its use in the peripheral vasculature is not quite as well established. Nonetheless a new paper makes the case that IVUS may be appropriate for widespread use in connection with diseases of the peripheral vasculature, a position that could lead to a considerable expansion of sales of IVUS systems.
Patent litigation is notoriously drawn out in some instances, as is the case with disputes between Boston Scientific Corp. (BSX), of Natick, Mass., and Nevro Corp., of Redwood City, Calif. However, the two announced Aug. 1 that they have come to terms over several lawsuits, with each enjoying the right to practice some of the disputed patents and Nevro taking in a net payment of $85 million.
Boston Scientific Corp. signed an agreement to purchase a majority stake (64%) of M.I. Tech Co. Ltd. for $230 million. The publicly traded Pyeongtaek South Korea-based company manufactures device solutions used in endoscopic and urologic procedures. Boston Scientific has distributed M.I. Tech’s Hanarostent non-vascular stent in Japan since 2015. The deal marks Boston Scientific’s first acquisition of the year, following a busy spending spree in 2021.
The U.S. FDA has received a citizen’s petition regarding the use of neuropsychological testing prior to placement of a deep brain stimulation (DBS) device for treatment of Parkinson’s disease. The petitioners, most of whose names were redacted, said that there is no standardized test for this purpose, and thus the patient should have sole discretion of evaluating the meaning of their own tests or the use of these tests should not be seen dispositive of the question of whether to go ahead with placement of a DBS device for Parkinson’s.
The second generation of Boston Scientific Corp.’s Acurate Neo2 valve has demonstrated better performance than its predecessor, showing a threefold reduction of paravalvular leakage (PVL) said researchers. During the hotline/late-breaking trials session on May 17 at the EuroPCR meeting held in Paris, Andrea Buono, interventional cardiologist at Fondazione Poliambulanza Istituto Ospedaliero in Brescia, Italy, presented results from a large study comparing the performance of Acurate Neo and Acurate Neo2 in 13 Italian centers.
The Embold fibered detachable coil developed by Boston Scientific Corp. to obstruct or reduce the rate of blood flow during therapeutic treatment in the peripheral vasculature, has won U.S. FDA 510(k) clearance.
The Medicare new technology add-on (NTAP) program is a vital source of reimbursement rates for novel technologies, and several NTAP applications were extended by a year in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. That extension is set to expire for several key products, including the Eluvia drug eluting stent by Boston Scientific Corp., of Marlborough, Mass., and the Spinejack system by Stryker Corp., of Kalamazoo, Mich., forcing these companies to amortize their R&D costs at a more conventional pace.
Boston Scientific Corp.’s image-guided programming software, Vercise Neural Navigator with Stimview XT, got the green light from the FDA for use with the company’s deep brain stimulation (DBS) portfolio in patients with essential tremor or Parkinson’s disease. The software, developed in a collaboration with Brainlab AG, provides more sophisticated image-guided programming tools for personalization of the stimulation therapy, halving the time needed for adjustments and increasing precision.
The FDA has updated its recommendations for the use of duodenoscopes, which have been at the center of ongoing concerns regarding sterility for several years. The agency is again recommending that U.S.-based facilities use duodenoscopes with disposable parts or fully disposable duodenoscopes, but facilities that want to comply with those recommendations will face a much higher cost of use, according to several sources of cost data.
Patent law cases are known for lengthy, intricate arguments and explanations, but a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit flew against this trend.
