Chilling. It isn’t often that a bit of news is a perfect fit to that one-word description, but the recent decision by a Los Angeles jury in the first case to be decided pitting Johnson & Johnson (J&J; New Brunswick, New Jersey) against what is a cast of thousands of litigants is nothing short of that. Oh sure, there’s the usual post-decision posturing by the company per appealing the $8.3 million-plus jury award, but c’mon folks, the implications of this case for the medical-products giant – and truly for all other companies trying to do business in the med-tech space...
Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Pete O'Heeron, CEO of a private company called SpinalCyte, a company developing an application to treat degenerative disc disease using cells derived from human skin for the Nov. 9th edition of Medical Device Daily . O'Heeron was especially enthusiastic about the application, which would promote autologous regrowth of the spinal disc nucleus using human dermal fibroblasts (HDF). If such a technology could garner approval, it could potentially replace implants in patients. Although, this has only been test in animal models - the technology holds great promise. I think this story was right on...
I have been reporting medical technology news for close to six years and one thing that has consistently amazed me during that time has been the fact that simplicity often beats bells and whistles. The most recent example of this is the newly launched Kickstart Kinetic Orthosis from Cadence Biomedical (Seattle), a wearable device designed to help people with weakened muscles or disabilities regain mobility and independence. Amazingly, this new device was inspired by the anatomy of horses. It turns out a researcher from the Cleveland...
After Johnson & Johnson (J&J, New Brunswick, New Jersey) said that it was going to discontinue its work in the drug eluting stent (DES) market, my eyes then began to focus on Medtronic (Minneapolis), which has recently taken a beating in the wallet and court of public opinion with its bone growth product, Infuse. I began asking myself how much longer before Medtronic finally abandons ship on this application. I mean if there ever was a shining example of a device that has caused problems for a company then Infuse is it. The med-tech juggernaut was dealt what one would...
Late last month, Medtronic (Minneapolis) reported that it was cancelling several of its largest contracts with group purchasing organizations (GPOs) worth more than $2 billion collectively. Medtronic said the decision to cancel five contracts with Novation (Irving, Texas) and another with Premier (Charlotte, North Carolina) will save it about $60 million a year. Wall Street reacted positively to the news and some industry watchers are wondering if other companies will follow suit and bypass GPOs to sell products directly to hospitals. GPOs – which use high volume purchasing power to secure discounts for hospitals, introduce new devices to the market,...
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