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. India OKs Abbott’s FreeStyle Libre Pro glucose monitoring system
Regulators in India approved a glucose monitoring system made by Abbott that’s designed to track patients’ blood sugar levels for up to 2 weeks.
Abbott said India is the 1st country to approve the FreeStyle Libre Pro Flash professional-use device, which uses a patient-worn sensor to track blood glucose levels for up to 14 days. The sensor is applied by a healthcare provider to the back of the upper arm, measuring glucose levels every 15 minutes in interstitial fluid via a small filament inserted just under the skin, the Abbott Park, Ill.-based company said. Read more
2. Infraredx withdraws $56m IPO
Infraredx officially withdrew the planned initial public offering it hoped would raise $56 million, citing “unfavorable market conditions.”
Burlington, Mass.-based Infraredx makes an imaging system that combines intravascular ultrasound and near-infrared spectroscopy to provide images of the interior of coronary blood vessels. The company says the device is designed to detect lipid-core-containing plaque, which it says is implicated in higher risk for heart attack or stroke. Read more
1. Widowmaker: Stents as safe as open heart surgery in left main artery disease
A long-term Korean study found stents as safe as open heart surgery in treating blockages of a coronary artery known as the widowmaker, showing that stented patients did not run a significantly higher risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke.
But patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention, or angioplasty, with sirolimus-eluting stents were more likely to require revascularization than patients given coronary artery bypass grafts. Read more
