This article has been updated to include information from Acelity. A federal appeals court has revived a whistleblower lawsuit alleging that Acelity subsidiary Kinetic Concepts fraudulently billed Medicare for its negative-pressure wound therapy devices without doctors’ orders. A unanimous Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel decided that a district court erred in dismissing the lawsuit […]
Wound Care
These 5 DIY medical devices might surprise you
Big ideas in medical device development can come from regular people driven to solve vexing problems. Here are a handful of folks from outside the medtech industry who decided to create devices to solve their own health troubles or those of others around the world. Read on to see what high school, college and medical […]
3M funds Acelity buyout with $3.3B debt offering
3M (NYSE:MMM) is planning to finance its $6.7 billion acquisition of Acelity in part with a $3.3 billion debt offering. Maplewood, Minn.-based 3M, which announced its purchase of wound care giant Acelity in May, launched a four-part bond sale yesterday. 3M expects to finance the Acelity buyout with all of the net proceeds from the […]
Organogenesis boosts outlook on higher Q2 sales
Organogenesis (NSDQ:ORGO) beat The Street on sales for the second quarter of 2019 and boosted its outlook for the rest of the year amid continued strong sales growth in its wound-care business. The Canton, Mass.–based regenerative medicine company reported a loss of $9.65 million, or -11¢ per share, on sales of $64.95 million for the […]
Report: Smith & Nephew mulls shift to U.S. listing
The board of directors at Smith & Nephew (NYSE:SNN) reportedly discussed shifting its stock listing from the U.K. to the U.S., partly to free its CEO from British pay restrictions. The orthopedics and wound care giant last year tapped former Alere chief Namal Nawana to replace the retiring Olivier Bohuon. At Alere, Nawana pulled down […]
Gel-e gains breakthrough device nod for internal bleeding control device
Wound-care startup Gel-e said today that it has won FDA breakthrough status designation for its first internal-use flowable device. The College Park, Md.-based company’s first product, Life Foam, is an expanding, injectable hemostat designed to rapidly provide temporary control of bleeding from non-compressible abdominal wounds that are not suited to tourniquet application in trauma and battlefield […]
MiMedx claims win in proxy war with ex-CEO
MiMedx (NSDQ:MDXG) today claimed an early win in its proxy war with the CEO it fired for cause last year, saying that shareholders elected its slate of directors to the board, including new chief executive Timothy Wright. Marietta, Ga.-based MiMedx makes regenerative and therapeutic biologics using human placental tissue allografts. The ouster last year of then-CEO […]
ACell to pay $15m to settle secret recall charges
ACell last week pleaded guilty to a charge that it failed to report a recall of its MicroMatrix wound dressing and settled charges that it violated the False Claims Act, agreeing to pay $15 million to put the matter to rest, the U.S. Justice Dept. said. Columbia, Md.-based ACell also agreed to abide by a […]
ConvaTec helps fund wound management research grants
ConvaTec (LON:CTEC) said today that it has joined the European Wound Management Association (EWMA) to launch three grants for wound management research. The grants will be available to nurses, doctors and scientists working in the field of wound management. ConvaTec’s contribution of approximately $34,000 will be split across three themes: Process redesign to improve quality […]
MediWound lands $21m extension from BARDA to support NexoBrid
MediWound (NSDQ:MDWD) said today that the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) upsized a contract with the company to provide a supplemental $21 million in funding. The newly acquired funding will be used to help launch the NexoBrid expanded access treatment protocol with the company’s NexoBrid product. The NexoBrid is a topically-administered product intended […]
MiMedx: Ex-managers cooked the books, went after whistleblowers
The former management team at MiMedx (NSDQ:MDXG), led by ex-CEO Parker Petit, allegedly enacted a scheme to cook the books at the regenerative medicine company, retaliated against anyone who questioned their sketchy accounting practices and secretly filmed their offices, according to a probe the company launched after the scheme blew up last year. In February 2018, […]