medical device

Cyberonics, a Houston-based maker of a controversial medical device for the treatment of depression says charges that it backdated stock options are "inaccurate and without merit." In a research note last week, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analyst Amit Hazan questioned the timing of grants the company made to executives around the time the company won FDA approval for its Vagus Nerve Stimulation system. Hazan writes that the Cyberonics board approved options for three key executives dated …

Johnson & Johnson won FDA approval for a medical device designed to deliver painkillers to hospitalized patients at the touch of a button. The Ionsys system delivers the opiod painkiller fentanyl cutaneously through a patch into the bloodstream. The company says the technology has built-in safeguards designed to prevent abuse.

- read this Wall Street Journal article (sub. req.)

With the pharmaceutical industry facing generic competition and biotechs running into the federal ban on stem cell research and other impediments, healthcare venture capital investment continues to flow into the medical device sector. Business 2.0 reports that 70 companies received $690 million in VC funding in the first quarter of this year, an increase of more than 60 percent over a year ago. The magazine talks with Mark Brooks of BA Venture Partners who notes that the relative …

The Heart Rhythm Society, a leading cardiologist's group, released a much-anticipated set of guidelines governing how the healthcare industry should handle medical device recalls. The group recommend methods of collecting safety data to catch potential safety problems. It also says manufacturers should engage outside experts to monitor the performance of their products. Among the specific changes is a call for better reporting on malfunctions and routine inspections in cases in which a …

> Are doctors too highly paid? It's certainly a politically charged question if ever there was one. Blogger Ezra Klein tackles it, with predictable results in his comment thread. Blog

> Forbes reports on the Washington PR campaign planned by the medical device lobby. …

Canada's Angiotech Pharmaceuticals said it will pay $758 million in cash for privately held American Medical Instruments holdings, a maker of custom needles. In the medical device world, Angiotech is perhaps best known for its collaboration with Boston Scientific on the successful Taxus stent. Angiotech plans to use the acquisition to expand into markets for specialized products for general, plastic and ophthalmic surgery as well as the vascular surgery market.

- see this article from the New York Times

Johnson & Johnson has until today to raise its offer for Guidant. Many analysts think its unlikely J&J will fork over more than the $24.2 billion it has already offered to beat a larger bid from Boston Scientific. But on the other hand, it is increasingly obvious how important Guidant's business could be to the company's future. J&J turned in final results for 2005 today, reporting so-so drug sales but great numbers from its medical device and diagnostic services units, with …

In contrast to pharma and biotech sectors, both of which are suffering from protracted growing pains, the medical device sector is red hot and likely to get hotter, writes The New York Times. All you have to do is look at the bidding war over Guidant. As "wave after wave of baby boomers" hits the market, business is only going to get better, the paper argues. The fusion of medicine and information technology is leading to a new generation of consumer-friendly devices designed to …

Neurologist Dr. John McDonald, probably best known for having treated paralyzed actor Christopher Reeve, is the founder of Baltimore-based Restorative Therapies, a medical device start-up specializing in technologies that help people with neurological damage recover motor functions. This week the company received FDA approval for the RTS-300, a functional electrical stimulation (FES) motorized cycle ergometer. According to the company, the device works by delivering electrical currents to …