January 22, 2018 — Baxter International Inc. announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of Bivalirudin in 0.9 percent Sodium Chloride Injection (bivalirudin). Bivalirudin is a specific and direct thrombin inhibitor indicated for use as an anticoagulant in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), a common non-surgical procedure to treat blocked or narrowed blood vessels in the heart.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced initiation of a program to develop contrast agents with reduced renal toxicity. Through this new, internally-funded program, Ligand intends to advance products toward proof-of-concept, followed by selling or out-licensing them for further development and commercialization. The program will leverage Ligand’s patented Captisol technology, as well as data and intellectual property obtained through its acquisition of Verrow Pharmaceuticals, a privately-held Lenexa, Kansas-based medical invention company that Ligand acquired in January 2018 for $2 million in cash plus earnouts.

Abbott last week announced CE Mark approval for the company's new Advisor HD Grid Mapping Catheter, Sensor Enabled, a product designed to advance cardiac mapping during cardiac ablation to treat patients with complex cardiac arrhythmias. With the European launch of this latest addition to Abbott’s electrophysiology portfolio, the company is offering physicians a mapping catheter with what it calls a first-of-its-kind grid configuration of electrodes for improved data collection that supports the creation of high-density mapping of cardiac tissue to support optimal treatment for patients.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that International Laboratories LLC is voluntarily recalling Lot# 117099A of Clopidogrel Tablets, USP 75 mg, packaged in bottles of 30 tablets, to the consumer level due to mislabeling. The product is labeled as Clopidogrel Tablets USP, 75 mg but may contain Clopidogrel 75mg or Simvastatin Tablets USP 10 mg.

National Clinical Decision Support Company (NDSC) has an exclusive deal with the American College of Radiology (ACR) to provide medical imaging appropriate use criteria (AUC).

January 18, 2018 — Change Healthcare announced the acquisition of National Decision Support Company (NDSC), a leader in cloud-based clinical decision support (CDS) software that delivers medical guidelines to the point of care in electronic medical record (EMR) systems. The addition of NDSC accelerates the efforts of Change Healthcare to leverage evidence-based clinical information and next-generation technologies to help reduce healthcare costs and ensure appropriate care.

January 18, 2018 – West Hills Hospital & Medical Center, a full-service acute care facility, announces the first completion of the Tryton Side Branch Stent in the San Fernando Valley. This unique stent is engineered to treat coronary bifurcation lesions involving large side branches.

January 18, 2018 – Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies announced that Biosense Webster, Inc., a worldwide leader in the diagnosis and treatment of heart arrhythmias, enrolled the first patient in the WaveCrest Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) Trial.

Here is a list of what I think were some of the top interventional technologies discussed at the 2017 Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) annual meeting this past fall. These technology areas have the biggest potential to impact clinical practice and received a lot of attention at this year’s meeting.   

Bioresorbable Stents Suffer a Setback

The Abbott Absorb Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold (BVS) bioabsorbable stent.

There was no shortage of interest in bioresorbable stent technologies at the many sessions offered on this topic or based on the number of start-up bioresorbable stent companies presenting at the 2017 Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) meeting. However, there was noticeable apprehension at the meeting about what the future of the technology will be.
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