With the end of the year just around the corner, MassDevice is taking a look back at 2009 and the five most popular stories of the year. Here’s our list:
- Industry leaders express concern as FDA clamps down on 510(k)s: A report from a leaked Food & Drug Administration memo about “changes in the air” for the 510(K) process really seemed to resonate with readers, who made this the most read story of the year on MassDevice. Look for this subject to continue to garner attention in the coming year, as the Centers for Devices and Radiological Health and the Institute of Medicine continue to peer under the hood at this regulatory pathway for new devices.
- New CMS dialysis reimbursement rules could help NxStage: Sometimes the strangest things go viral, like this story about Lawrence, Mass.-based kidney dialysis maker NxStage Medical Inc. (NSDQ:NXTM). NxStage CEO Jeff Burbank told us that new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid rules could give it a boost, due to changes to the reimbursement rate for its home dialysis treatments slated to go into effect in 2011.
- Russian oligarch is Biopure’s new owner: When we broke this story about Russian industrialist Sergei Pugachev (whose holdings include banks, mines, ships and the French gourmet emporium Hediard) buying the remains of Biopure Corp. (OTC:BPURQ), readers came running. This story was a big deal for MassDevice, too, because we were the first news outlet to dig up the buyer’s name of the defunct maker of Hemopure blood substitute.
- Device industry to Baucus: How about $15 billion instead? No surprise here. Anything to do with healthcare reform and the one-time proposal for a $40 billion medical device tax proved to be a real traffic driver this year, and this story about the industry’s counter-proposal to Sen. Max Baucus was no exception.
- Running in place: Our first feature story. In fact, it’s the first story we ever wrote; we had it in the can before we even launched the site. This profile of a Cambridge, Mass.-based start-up working on a treatment for spinal cord injuries and its founder, Frank Reynolds, was written so early we had it on our investor mockups back in 2008.
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