Medtronic asks ITC to stop Axonics’ sales of neuromod devices

Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) + today announced that it filed a complaint to the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to block the sales of certain Axonics (Nasdaq:AXNX) devices.

The complaint to the ITC runs parallel to action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. Medtronic wants to block Axonics from “improperly importing and selling products that infringe two of its patents related to the MRI compatibility of implantable medical devices.”

Medtronic wants the ITC to investigate and exclude the importation of Axonics products believed by the company to infringe its patents. The company has a separate infringement suit pending in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California as well. That suit asserts that Axonics infringed additional technologies developed by and belonging to Medtronic.

“Medtronic is continuing our efforts to stop Axonics from profiting off of …

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March 2024: Medtronic AI, Ortho tech at AAOS 2024 and Abbott PFA

 

How Medtronic’s using AI: Artificial intelligence insights and advice Abbott bets on balloons in the pulsed field ablation battle How Noah Medical’s robotic Galaxy system goes deep into the lungs The biggest stories from AAOS 2024 Surgical robots don’t improve knee surgery revision rates, study says Seize the AI opportunity

Less than a year into his new role as Medtronic’s chief technology and innovation officer, Ken Washington was presenting on artificial intelligence to leaders of the company’s operating units.

One of the GMs stopped him and asked for help making sense of all the buzzwords and acronyms.

Perhaps you know the feeling. It’s hard to grasp how AI seems to be everywhere, with advanced computing power making sense of vast datasets. It’s in the voice assistants on our smartphones, the streaming services on our various screens, mapping systems in our cars, the chat bots who respond when we need customer service, and online services ra…

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These diabetes devices are set to launch in 2024

The Stelo glucose monitor. [Image courtesy of Dexcom]The diabetes space continues to innovate and it doesn’t look like that’s stopping any time soon, with 2024 set to be another banner year.

At the end of 2023, we compiled a list of the 10 biggest diabetes technology stories of the year. Some of those stories didn’t end in 2023, though, as a few major product launches loom on the horizon.

New CGMs, insulin pumps and combinations of the two will all be coming to the market over the next several months. Here are some of the most highly-anticipated product launches set to take place in the diabetes space in 2024 — plus some of the tech that’s already launched:

Diabetes launches on the horizon Medtronic’s new pump-sensor combo

In January, Medtronic won CE mark for its MiniMed 780G automated insulin delivery system with the Simplera Sync sensor.

The MiniMed 780G with the Simplera Sync CGM and accompanying devices. [Image courtes…
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Former Mazor VP convicted of insider trading

[Image from Pixabay]A federal jury in Minnesota has convicted a former Mazor Robotics VP of insider trading and securities fraud around Medtronic’s $1.6 billion acquisition announcement in 2018.

Ron Tavlin was Mazor’s VP of business development from 2017 to 2019. Before that, he’d been a paid consultant for Medtronic. On Feb. 16, a jury found him guilty on one count of conspiracy to commit insider trading and 10 counts of securities fraud and aiding and abetting securities fraud, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota.

In 2022, federal prosecutors accused Tavlin of tipping off his friend Afshin Farahan about the impending deal in 2018, and that Farahan then bought Mazor stock. Farahan made a profit of about $500,000 off the allegedly illegal trades, according to authorities.

Prosecutors claimed that Farahan had agreed to pay Tavlin for the information. More than a year late, Farahan gave Tavlin a $25,000 check.

When …

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Former Medtronic President Thomas Holloran passes away

Former Medtronic executive and board member Thomas Holloran [Image courtesy of the University of St. Thomas]Thomas Holloran — an executive from Medtronic’s earliest days who served on the medtech giant’s board for decades — has died at the age of 94.

Holloran passed away on the evening of Feb. 15, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported.

A biography on the website of the University of St. Thomas — where Holloran played an important role in creating the law school and founding the Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership — recounts how Halloran in the late 1950s was a partner at Wheeler and Fredrikson, the firm that would become Fredrikson and Byron. It was there that he helped incorporate Medtronic, which at the time was a small operation working out of a garage.

The Star Tribune says Holloran joined Medtronic’s board in 1960, where he served for the rest of the 20th century. He eventually worked for the company as general counsel, working …

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Medtronic is exiting the ventilator market

Medtronic’s Puritan Bennett 560 ventilator [Image courtesy of Medtronic]Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) + announced today that it will exit what it describes as its increasingly unprofitable ventilator product line.

The move comes more than a year after Medtronic said it would spin off its Patient Monitoring and Respiratory Interventions businesses, part of its Medical Surgical portfolio. Reports last year claimed that other medtech companies, including GE HealthCare and ICU Medical, and the private equity firm Carlyle Group were among those considering a purchase of the businesses.

In the end, Medtronic’s leadership decided instead to end the ventilator business, combining what remains of Patient Monitoring and Respiratory Interventions into one business unit called Acute Care and Monitoring (ACM). The company said in a news release: “Given this increased investment along with an improved competitive landscape, the comp…

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How GLP-1s tanked and reshaped the medtech stock market in 2023

Analysts weigh in on how the GLP-1 craze caused one of the biggest swings in the medtech stock market in recent years.

[Image courtesy of Nick Chong on Unsplash]In a tumultuous year for the medtech industry, promising clinical trial results on glucagon-like peptide 1 agonists (GLP-1s) created a seismic shift in the medtech stock market, triggering one of the largest dips in market value that analysts have seen in years.

While analysts said the medtech stock market performed well in 2023 – driven by strong market growth from the backlog of procedures that built up during the pandemic and more innovation and new product launches from companies – the fear of GLP-1s prevailed among investors, sending medtech stocks down significantly in the second half of the year, even as top executives sought to allay concerns.

The specter of GLP-1s such as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Ozempic loomed large, casting doubt on medtech’s future trajectory at the end of the year. However, the stocks have almost fully recovered since then. Analysts predict a rebound in 2024, with diminishing head…

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DeviceTalks Boston 2024: Our favorite panels and new additions

Our team picks favorites from our upcoming show, including some new additions to the program.

Leaders from CMR Surgical, the developer of the Versius surgical robotics system, will speak at DeviceTalks Boston 2024. [Photo courtesy of CMR Surgical]

I enjoy reading bookstore staff recommendations. It’s nice to see how people in the know like to spend their time.

But if you asked me to pick my favorite panels on the agenda for DeviceTalks Boston, taking place May 1–2, 2024 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, I couldn’t do it.

In fact, I won’t do it. Sorry, dear reader, I’ve put too much into this agenda to pick one favorite session. Plus, I owe neutrality to our speakers — amazing professionals willing to give up two days to help me create something. That’s a covenant that I cannot violate by selecting a favorite.

But I can put our editorial team on the spot to pick their favorites. And…

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Medtronic names first chief sustainability officer

New Medtronic Chief Sustainability Officer Raman Venkatesh brings experience in sustainability efforts to the medtech giant. [Image courtesy of Ken Washington on LinkedIn]A Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) + executive shared on social media that the company named a chief sustainability officer.

Raman Venkatesh will join the medtech giant as VP and CSO — a newly created role — starting on Feb. 19. Ken Washington, Medtronic SVP and chief technology officer, announced the appointment on LinkedIn.

In the role, Venkatesh holds responsibility for leading the development and execution of the company’s environmental sustainability strategy.

“I am excited to see Raman and his team drive Medtronic forward on our sustainability journey,” Washington posted. “I am confident that together we will shape and unlock new innovative solutions that serve our patients and our planet.

Venkatesh’s career history…

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Medtronic touts cost-effectiveness of Linq insertable cardiac monitors

The Reveal Linq implantable cardiac monitor (ICM). [Image courtesy of Medtronic]Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) + today announced new cost-effectiveness data from a study looking at its Reveal Linq insertable cardiac monitor (ICM).

Results from the STROKE AF clinical study demonstrated that continuous monitoring with Reveal Linq proved significantly more cost-effective than the standard of care in ischemic stroke patients with large artery and small vessel disease. Medtronic plans to present results at the AHA/ASA International Stroke Conference 2024 in Phoenix.

Medtronic reported data from 492 patients in the STROKE AF study. It took place across 33 centers in the U.S. Reveal Linq, meanwhile, received FDA clearance in 2014 and has availability worldwide. Previous results from STROKE AF demonstrated a boost in AFib detection registering about 10-fold among stroke patients.

The study projected that ICM patients experience 53 …

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10 surgical robotics companies you need to know

The surgical robotics space saw a major shakeup last year. The da Vinci SP surgical robotics system [Image courtesy of Intuitive Surgical]“Robotics is hard. Robotics in healthcare is hard.”

Hani Abouhalka, Johnson & Johnson’s company group chair for Robotics & Digital, said those words at our DeviceTalks West event in California in October.

It pretty much sums up the situation for medtech companies large and small that sought to compete against Intuitive in the soft-tissue surgical robotics space. Despite the increased competition, Intuitive remains the undisputed leader. It’s even moving forward on a next-gen da Vinci robot.

For its part, Johnson & Johnson is sticking with plans to develop its Ottava surgical robot. J&J now plans to submit Ottava for FDA investigational device exemption (IDE) in the second half of 2024 in order to start clinical trials.

Even though it is sticking with robotic surgery, J&J laid off employees in th…

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Medtronic enrolls first patient in aneurysm repair trial

The Endurant II/IIs stent graft systems (left) and Heli-FX EndoAnchor system (right) [Images courtesy of Medtronic]Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) + announced today that it enrolled the first patient in the Hercules trial comparing abdominal aortic aneurysm repair methods.

Hercules compares endosuture aneurysm repair (ESAR) to standard endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR). It looks at these methods in patients who have an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) with a wide, infrarenal neck diameter.

Abdominal aortic aneurysms occur in about 1.4% of people ages 50 to 84 in the U.S., according to Cleveland Clinic. Aging, tobacco use and certain medical conditions can cause the aorta’s wall to weaken and bulge. A burst is life-threatening. Over more than a decade, Medtronic’s Endurant stents have grown as an alternative to open surgery.

Patients in the Hercules trial will receive either the Endurant II/IIs stent graft (EVAR arm) o…

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