Medtronic Inc. (NYSE:MDT) won a partial victory in a Bay State federal court after Judge Douglas Woodlock dismissed two of the three counts filed against it in a whistleblower lawsuit alleging the deliberate off-label promotion of biliary stents.
Stents
Medtronic Resolute in the face of BSX’s Taxus
InfraReDx launches IVUS LipiScan stent-guidance trials
InfraReDx Inc. announced that it enrolled the first patient into CANARY trials for its LipiScan coronary imaging guidance system, intended to help prevent heart attacks during stenting.
The Burlington, Mass.-based LipiScan IVUS combines intravascular ultrasound and near-infrared spectroscopy to help cardiologists identify coronary plaques and key structural features of lesions including location, length, degree of stenosis and plaque buildup during percutaneous coronary interventions.
Biotronik: J&J ran “sham” recall | Legal Roundup
A Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) subsidiary allegedly issued a sham recall of its drug-eluting CoStar coronary stent and spiked a distribution deal with Biotronik AG that cost the German medical device giant $100 million, according to a lawsuit filed in New York’s highest court.
Biotronik accuses J&J subsidiary of “sham” recall
A Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) subsidiary allegedly issued a sham recall of its drug-eluting CoStar coronary stent and spiked a distribution deal with Biotronik AG that cost the German medical device giant $100 million, according to a lawsuit filed in New York’s highest court.
Breast implants get mixed review from FDA
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — The revamped breast implant is safer than the last generation, which was pulled off the market in 1992 over fears of leakage, but the silicon prosthetics still come with risks, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration warned.
The implants are safe in general, the agency said, but complications are common and the implants aren’t going to last forever.
Heart devices: More Confirmation Stents Overused
Another day, another study showing that invasive cardiologists overuse angioplasty and insert unneeded stents in patients without acute symptoms of coronary artery disease.
The latest study, which appeared in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association, deemed 15 percent of the 600,000 angioplasties done every year are either inappropriate or their necessity is uncertain.
Will JAMA heart stent article start another Wall Street stampede?
A footnote in a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. about percutaneous coronary interventions may have a ripple effect on Wall Street.
The study gathered data on more than 500,000 PCIs conducted at more than 1,000 U.S. hospitals between July 2009 and September 2010. The researchers determined the appropriateness of each procedure based on the 2009 coronary revascularization appropriate use criteria, a whitesheet generated and endorsed by medical professional societies in 2009 amid growing debate over proper use of PCIs.
Cardiac Stents: BSX could fetch two-thirds of Cordis’ stent biz in the U.S.
Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE:BSX) could be positioned to gobble up some two-thirds of the business left on the table by Cordis Corp. in the U.S., according to research released by the Millennium Research Group.
More unnecessary stenting in Pennsylvania
Coronary stent
A new report found an additional 51 patients may have received unnecessary stenting ordered by two Pennsylvania.
The new cases make for a total of 200 patients with questionable stents ordered by doctors Ehad Morcos and George Bou Samra, now ex-employees of Westmoreland Hospital in Greenburg, Pa.