Crucell N.V. (NSDQ:CRXL) shareholders voted to adopt the governance resolutions of the company’s proposed acquisition by Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ).
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New York’s Medicaid program gives Roche glucose monitors the boot
New York’s Medicaid program has taken glucose monitors and strips made by Roche Diagnostics Corp. off of its preferred manufacturing list, a move that could cost the company market share in the competitive diabetes market.
Medtronic wins FDA nod for MRI-safe pacemaker
The Food & Drug Administration approved Medtronic Inc.’s (NYSE:MDT) MRI-safe pacemaker, touted as the first such device to hit the market.
The Minneapolis-based medical device giant said it plans to begin shipping the product immediately.
Ohio-funded Israeli medtech firm closes $10 million IPO | Funding roundup
An Israeli medical device company backed by a Northeast Ohio venture capital firm has raised more than $10 million in an initial public offering on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
Now the company, IceCure Ltd., is exploring whether to set up its U.S. sales and marketing headquarters in Northeast Ohio, though CEO Hezi Himelfarb stressed that no final decision has been made. But Northeast Ohio would seem to have a leg up on the competition because it’s the home of the Bridge Investment Fund, which has invested more than $1 million in IceCure since 2008.
Medicare chief Berwick set for face-off with House panel
Donald Berwick will step into the lion’s den on Capitol Hill this week, when the new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid chief is slated to testify before a U.S. House panel on what impact last year’s landmark Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act will have on Medicare.
Search the FDA’s medical device database with FDAzilla on MassDevice
Quickly search the Food & Drug Administration’s medical device database on MassDevice, thanks to a new partnership with our friends at FDAZilla.
They’re developing an exciting new web-based business intelligence tool that quickly and easily mines the FDA’s labyrinth of data without having to navigate the watchdog agency’s often confusing and cavernous website. FDAzilla has millions of pages of FDA data (MAUDE, devices, drugs, 483s listing, FDA employees), all of which can be easily searched and sorted with just a few keystrokes.
FDA’s “Innovation Pathway” proposal débuts with military bionic arm project
The Food & Drug Administration, aiming to blaze trail on a so-called "Innovation Pathway" designed to speed innovative medical technology to market, tapped a military project to create a prosthetic arm controlled by a brain-implanted microchip as its first speedy review candidate.
GOP govs want control over state insurance exchanges
A group of Republican governors who are opposed to the healthcare reform law are asking Dept. of Health & Human Services chief Kathleen Sebelius to give them more control over the health insurance exchanges the law requires.
Twenty GOP governors, including prominent Obamacare opponent Mitch Daniels of Indiana, sent the letter yesterday asking for more say in how the exchanges are set up and run.
Sun exposure linked to lower multiple sclerosis risk
Highlights of the important and interesting in the world of healthcare.
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Sun exposure linked to lower multiple sclerosis risk. Sun lovers may (and people with higher vitamin D levels) may be less likely to develop MS, according to a study conducted at Australian National University that was published in the journal Neurology, reports Reuters. Those who’d like to experiment with the study’s findings are reminded to wear sunblock.
The MassDevice Weekly Checkup: February 8, 2010
Our Weekly Checkup takes the temperature of the medical device industry’s three largest U.S. clusters: Massachusetts, California and Minnesota.
The MassDevice Indices are weighted according to market capitalization, based on the number of shares outstanding for each company and each Friday’s closing share price.
The Massachusetts index for the week ended Feb. 4 closed at 6.08, down 1.5 percent compared with the prior week. Since Jan. 1, 2009, when we began tracking these companies, the index has risen 37.1 percent.
Clinical-decision support: The next “disruptive innovation” for healthcare?
By Keeley Wray
The term disruptive innovation – introduced by Harvard Business School’s Clayton Christensen in a 1995 article — has been used by technology-development stakeholders to describe radical innovations and their implications for market entry strategies. Christensen describes the term on his website:
“An innovation that is disruptive allows a whole new population of consumers access to a product or service that was historically only accessible to consumers with a lot of money or a lot of skill.”