Here are some of the top stories at MedCity News this week:
— A panel at Cleveland Clinic’s Medical Innovations Summit focused on five companies developing innovative obesity-fighting medical devices that have yet to hit the market. The companies that participated developed devices that used different mechanisms to make patients feel full.
— Holy cow! That’s one small pacemaker. As MedCity News reported in August, Medtronic Inc. (NYSE:MDT), based in Fridley, Minnesota, has been working on a wireless pacemaker. The company debuted the pacemaker at the annual TEDMED conference in San Diego, and thanks to Engadget, a blog owned by AOL, we got our first look.
At ViVE 2024, Panelists Share Prior Authorization Progress and Frustration in Payer Insights Program
At the Payer Insights sessions on Day 1 of ViVE 2024, a panel on prior authorization offered compelling insights from speakers who shared the positive developments in this area after years of mounting frustration. Speakers also shared challenges as they work with providers to figure out how policy developments and technology will work in practice.
— A radioactive imaging agent that helps doctors detect Alzheimer’s disease took the top spot in Cleveland Clinic’s list of the Top 10 Medical Innovations for 2011. Other top innovations included an antibody that targets metastatic melanoma and the first therapeutic cancer vaccine approved by the FDA.
— Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE:BSX) finally pulled the trigger, saying it would sell a major business to Stryker Corp. (NYSE:SYK). It just wasn’t the business Wall Street was expecting it to sell. In a surprise move, Boston Scientific said it would sell its neurovascular unit to Stryker for $1.5 billion.
— Medical device firms have good reason to dislike the healthcare reform law. You would, too, if Uncle Sam taxed you $20 billion to pay for it. But tucked away in the law is a little-known tax credit designed to help startups: the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project tax credit.
