Respiratory

This week, HistoSonics announced it will bring its ultrasound system for destroying liver tumors into VA hospitals, Edwards Lifesciences reports encouraging TRISCEND II trial results at TCT, study finds blood test for CRC screening are less cost-effective than alternatives, and more.

This week, Establishment Labs Holdings announced the FDA gave it premarket approval for Motiva breast implant, Cologuard lands FDA approval for Cologuard Plus and GE HealthCare gets FDA nod for a new imaging agent. The FDA announces another expansion for TAP into ophthalmology and radiology. The AAMI and CTA will join forces to develop standards for AI and ML-enabled health care products.  

Philips has issued a recall of various Trilogy ventilators due to safety issues that may affect their ability to properly function. The US FDA has designated the recall class I, its most serious.

Philip Morris described a scenario of being essentially blacklisted by the health care sector and its CDMO partners as it threw in the towel on its £1.1bn acquisition of UK inhalation specialist Vectura. It agreed to offload the firm at a fraction of the initial cost.

According to Zacks Equity Research, the new trial seeks to support AlphaVac’s adoption in the European market, where pulmonary embolism prevalence and severity is an estimated 435,000 events annually.

Smiths Medical has recalled scores of Bivona tracheostomy tubes due to a manufacturing defect that can result in disastrous consequences. The company reports multiple injuries, and one death, linked to the devices.

This week, a Delaware court awarded Auris Health shareholders $1bn in a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson; Abbott recalled some FreeStyle Libre 3 sensors; and McKesson purchased a controlling interest in a Florida cancer care chain.

The US Food and Drug Administration released six warning letters and two close-outs last month, including four warnings to marketers of unauthorized continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) cleaners or sanitizers.

The devices include a digital therapeutic to treat ADHD and a tongue muscle stimulator to prevent sleep apnea and snoring. They all initially reached market via the de novo process and have now been declared class II.

Elevated levels of the COVID-19 virus in wastewater samples have prompted the Biden-Harris administration to dust off its free testing program in preparation for the fall and winter. The US Postal Service will begin shipping the testing kits in September.

Inari Medical is updating use instructions for a clot-removing catheter due to the potential for serious adverse effects, including death.

Philips has filed a lawsuit against a Pennsylvania lab it hired to analyze sound abatement foam that prompted widespread recalls of its CPAP machines. Philips alleges PSN Labs grossly overestimated the risk to patients, which led Philips to initiate a larger recall than it otherwise would have.

This week, Nipro Medical Corp. announced it will invest $397.8m to build a US-based production plant, generating 232 new jobs; both Baxter and Hamilton announced ventilator recalls; Imperative Care wins FDA clearance for its stroke catheter; Intelligent Ultrasound Group plc entered into a conditional sale and purchase deal to sell its Clinical AI business to GE HealthCare for £40.5m; RMI distributed 350m rapid test kits in the fight against HIV/AIDS; Jiangsu Shenli Medical Production Co., Ltd received a second FDA warning letter about quality and safety of plastic syringes.

This week, Roche filed suit against Foresight Diagnostics and Stanford University over patent infringement; the former head of a COVID-19 test company was convicted of securities fraud; and Baxter announced a recall of Life2000 ventilators.

Last month, the US FDA increased the number of injuries and deaths initially reported in a March recall from Philips, which the company disputed. The FDA now says its adjusted numbers were in error.

The US Federal Trade Commission wants to clean up the FDA’s Orange Book by purging medical device patents that the commission says should not be in the listing. The FTC argues improper patents in the Orange Book block lower-cost generic equivalents from coming to market. Medtech Insight spoke to attorney Sara Koblitz about the FTC’s delisting push.

The US FDA is reporting dozens more additional deaths associated with a May recall of Philips ventilators than initially reported. The company says it stands by its original number of seven and has reached out to the FDA.

This week, the ACLA filed a lawsuit against the US FDA; Philips recalled around 100,000 ventilators; women’s health companies Natural Cycles and Gameto padded their coffers; and Canary Medical and J&J’s Ethicon received FDA nods.

This week, Philips Respironics reached a $1.1b settlement affecting CPAP and other breathing devices. Toku announced it received US FDA breakthrough device designation for its MyKidneyAI technology. This May, the FDA will hold its REdI conference focusing on innovation in medical product development and hold another townhall focusing on considerations for selecting a sterilization modality.

The new tool provides a way of quantifying the degree of diversity by race/ethnicity, sex and age in clinical trials, but the results will not factor into the US health technology assessment body’s cost effectiveness determinations for new drugs.