Say hello to MassDevice +3, a bite-sized view of the top three medtech stories of the day. This feature of MassDevice.com’s coverage highlights our 3 biggest and most influential stories from the day’s news to make sure you’re up to date on the headlines that continue to shape the medical device industry.
3. Senate Republican budget includes medical device tax repeal
Republicans in the U.S. Senate, hoping to pass the 1st budget since 2013, released a budget proposal yesterday that includes language to repeal the 2.3% medical device tax enacted as part of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
“Obamacare’s onerous medical device tax has harmed healthcare innovation, stifled job creation, and burdened the delivery of quality patient care,” Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said in prepared remarks. “Efforts to repeal this tax have received overwhelming bipartisan support in the past, and I couldn’t be more pleased [Budget Committee chairman Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.)] has included the repeal of this disastrous tax in his budget. It is time to end this tax so that more resources can be devoted to healthcare innovation – not to the coffers of Obamacare.” Read more
2. Svelte Medical adds $16m for wrist-delivered stent
Svelte Medical Systems today said it plans to use the $16 million it just raised to commercialize its wrist-delivered stenting technology.
New Providence, N.J.-based Svelte said the round involved current investors and was led by CNF Investments, the West Health Investment Fund and New Science Ventures. Read more
1. Sales reps level $50m sex discrimination suit against Boston Scientific
Two female employees of Boston Scientific’s neuromodulation business filed a $50 million class-action lawsuit alleging sex discrimination, alleging that the company fosters a culture in which men feel free to harass and discriminate against women.
The plaintiffs are Denise Fretter, a regional business manager in Ohio, and former Nevada territory manager Maria Korsgaard. Fretter and Korsgaard are seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, back pay, front pay, compensatory, nominal and punitive damages, attorneys’ fees and costs on behalf of all female sales reps for Boston Scientific’s neuromodulation business, according to court documents. Read more