Say hello to MassDevice +5, a bite-sized view of the top five medtech stories of the day. This feature of MassDevice.com’s coverage highlights our 5 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.
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5. Varian Medical’s components spinout, Varex Imaging, begins public trading
Shares in Varex Imaging, the $200 million components business spun out of Varian Medical, hit the market last week for their 1st day of public trading.
Stock in Salt Lake City-based Varex debuted Jan. 20 at $28 apiece, hitting a high of $28.50 before closing up 0.5% at $28.15 per share. Varian said earlier this month that it expects the spinout, accomplished via a tax-free distribution of shares such that each stockholder receives 0.4 shares of Varex for each Varian share, to be complete Jan. 28. The stock is slated to begin normal trading under the “VREX” symbol Jan. 30. Read more
4. Elucent Medical raises $7.2 in Series A for next-gen breast clip device
Breast cancer-focused medical device startup Elucent Medical has raised $7.2 million in a Series A round of financing, according to an Xconomy report.
The funding round for the Eden Prairie, Minn.-based company closed late last year, according to Xconomy, who spoke to co-founder and CEO Laura King. Read more
3. PixarBio ends bizarre takeover bid for InVivo Therapeutics
PixarBio withdrew its $100 million takeover bid for InVivo Therapeutics, the regenerative medicine company that PixarBio CEO Frank Reynolds co-founded and led until his 2013 ouster.
Cambridge, Mass.-based PixarBio said it will “stay focused on our NeuroRelease Pain platform and continue to drive our non-opiate non addictive [sic] morphine replacement to market with FDA approval expected between the end of 2018 and early 2019.” Read more
2. Healthcare industry braces for change on Trump’s executive order
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday that could scale back enforcement of some provisions of the Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare, and analysts warned that shares of hospitals and Medicaid providers could face new pressure as fears over losing coverage grow.
President Trump wrote that government departments should “waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation” of provisions from the sweeping healthcare law that present fiscal burdens on states, companies or individuals, Reuters reported. Kellyanne Conway, a senior advisor to the president, said in an interview yesterday that the new administration may not enforce a key provision of the Affordable Care Act requiring individual Americans to pay a fine for not having health insurance. Read more
1. ResMed buries the hatchet with China’s BMC Medical
ResMed and China’s BMC Medical agreed to bury the hatchet, saying last week that their agreement puts to bed all of the long-simmering litigation between the sleep apnea device makers.
The patent infringement disputes date back at least to June 2013, when ResMed filed a lawsuit against BMC and its U.S. distributor, 3B Medical. That case involved patents covering continuous positive airway pressure devices, a nasal mask and a nasal pillow interface. Both sides claimed wins the following year when the International Trade Commission issued a mixed ruling, finding that 9 of BMC’s products each violated at least 1 of ResMed’s patents but invalidating others. Read more
