Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE:BSX) enrolled the first patient in its Evidence clinical trial comparing spinal cord stimulation with second operations for patients whose first back surgeries failed.
The Natick, Mass.-based medical device giant said the 132-patient trial will compare its Precision Plus spinal cord stimulator system with revision surgery to treat patients with failed back surgery syndrome at 20 sites worldwide.
The study will examine how much leg pain relief each procedure offers, measuring response rates after six months and after two years, according to a press release.
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MassDevice Staff Website The Massachusetts Medical Devices Journal is the online journal of the medical devices industry in the Commonwealth and New England, providing day-to-day coverage of the devices that save lives, the people behind them, and the burgeoning trends and developments within the industry.
The Precision Plus system is designed to pass electrical signals along the spinal cord to the brain, masking pain signals by fooling the brain into perceiving them as pleasurable. It’s aimed at patients with chronic pain in the torso or limbs who haven’t had any luck treating the symptoms with physical therapy, drugs or surgery. It was adapted from Boston Scientific’s work with cochlear implant technology, according to a Frost & Sullivan report analyzing the neurostimulation market.
That market is expected to grow by more than 204 percent by 2013, according to the report, with the spinal cord stimulation segment accounting for the lion’s share. SCS technologies grabbed about 70 percent of total neurostimulation product sales in 2006, according to Frost & Sullivan.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The Massachusetts Medical Devices Journal is the online journal of the medical devices industry in the Commonwealth and New England, providing day-to-day coverage of the devices that save lives, the people behind them, and the burgeoning trends and developments within the industry.
