The earthquake in Japan, which killed at least 10,000 and shut down vast portions of the country, is also hurting the medical device industry. In Japan, they’re dealing with a death toll sure to rise above 10,000, rolling blackouts and a nuclear disaster of as-yet-undetermined proportions. On Wall Street, investors in medical device makers are contending with issues of their own, as share prices slide and the long-term impact of the Japan earthquake remains unknown.

These are tense times for the more than 13,000 employees of American medical device and diagnostic companies in Japan and their employers back stateside, as the country tries to recover from a devastating 8.9 magnitude earthquake and accompanying tsunami. The impact of the quake will be felt far beyond the shores of the Pacific Ocean and into the heart of the medical device industry.

Eisai releases clinical trial results on two compounds and the drug development company will seek marketing approval on an epilepsy drug but withdraw such plans for a sepsis treatment after that drug fails in clinical trials.

A new Alzheimer’s disease biomarker test developed by Durham, North Carolina-based Zinfandel Pharmaceuticals is licensed by Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. in a deal worth up to $87 million.

If the United States truly wants to boost the economy and narrow its ginormous trade deficit, then medical technology would seem like a good place to start.Minnesota’s bread-and-butter industry generated a $5.4 billion trade surplus last year, one of the few American industries to do so. Which is why Obama administration officials visited Medtronic Inc. [...]

Start-up Bridgehead Solutions LLC, which aims to help foreign device firms enter the U.S. market, could be coming to Ohio, but it’s going to take $2 million to $3 million to ensure the company finds its way to the Buckeye state.

The Genesis neurostimulator works by delivering mild electrical shocks to leads placed in a patient’s spinal canal to interrupt or mask the transmission of pain signals to the brain.

It will be a new opportunity for the Endeavor stent system as it struggles with competition in the United States. One device analyst declared to Dow Jones News Service last month that Endeavor was an “also ran.” Japan is the last major market for Endeavor in the $4 billion global stent market.