Thomas Lee was the Minnesota Bureau Chief for MedCityNews.
Medtronic Inc. (NYSE:MDT) said Thursday that European regulators have approved its valve replacement technology to treat patients suffering from severe aortic stenosis. The company based in Fridley, Minnesota, said its CoreValve unit received the CE Mark, allowing Medtronic to sell the system to countries throughout the European Union.
With less than four weeks left in the year, Minnesota has awarded about 38 percent of the $11-million worth of angel investor tax credits available for 2010. Since launching the program in July, the state has granted about $4 million in tax credits to investors who funded startups ranging from solar energy to drugs to cancer treatments and diabetes, according to figures released this week by the Department of Employment and Economic Development.
Zelis highlights how employers, payers, and consumers are integrating digital tools to manage healthcare costs.
A group of University of Minnesota professors want the board of regents to investigate the suicide of a patient enrolled in a university-run drug study. the professors demand the regents appoint an independent outside panel of experts to examine potential ethics violations in the death of Dan Markingson, a mentally ill patient who killed himself after taking an experimental psychiatric drug developed by AstraZeneca.
It's been a dizzying few months for Margaret Anderson Kelliher. She went from Minnesota House Speaker -- and arguably the most powerful woman in the state -- to failed Democratic nominee for governor, to possible Minnesota Parks Board chair, and now president of the Minnesota High Tech Association. Kelliher chatted with MedCity News about tax reform, angel credits and why Minnesota needs to create an environment where entrepreneurs can fail.
If Allina Hospitals & Clinics ever finds itself at the center of multiple state investigations or lawsuits, or in economic free-fall, the hospital chain now knows where to seek advice. Allina this week named Allianz North America CEO Gary Bhojwani to its board of directors, addingthe crisis-tested executive to its ranks. Allianz North America, based […]
Sunshine Heart Inc. has raised $9.4 million, including $3.5 million from the sale of equity and options in the United States, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company, based in Australia and Eden Prairie, Minnesota, says it will use the money to fund a 20-patient feasibility study and eventually a large pivotal clinical trial in America of its C-Pulse technology, which helps hearts that are failing pump more blood.
How to turn analytics into actual policy outcomes.
The incoming Republican leadership in the Minnesota state legislature already is making good on its promises to streamline government. Last month, GOP officials unveiled a significantly slimmer committees structure, designed to eliminate redundancy and speed the notoriously slow business of making policy and passing laws. One casualty of the slimmer structure will be The House Committee on Biosciences and Workforce Development.
Synovis Life Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:SYNO) may not have generated many headlines this year (which is not necessarily a bad thing), but the St. Paul company has quietly produced a rather impressive annual performance, especially compared to what remains of Minnesota's shrinking, publicly traded medical device sector.
No shocker here, but Zacks Investment Research is not high on SurModics Inc. (NASDAQ:SRDX), the device/drug company based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Zacks this week lowered its rating on SurModics shares to "underperform" from "neutral." In other words, the research firm is telling investors to sell the stock "following its disappointing showing in the final quarter of 2010.
Despite its moniker, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been more drug (and device) than food in recent years. One major reason: the agency competes with several federal agencies, including the Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency, to oversee the nation's food supply. It's a confusing and ultimately self-defeating tangle of bureaucracy and overlapping authority.
MedCity News was at the Vive conference and spoke with executives who shared their insights for the healthcare industry.
In the past year, North Memorial Health Care, the hospital group based in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, has endured a nasty labor dispute and one day strike by its nurses union, fired its CEO after he was arrested for prostitution, and seen its bonds downgraded by a top credit rating firm. But North Memorial would be an attractive buy with its strong reputations in Level 1 trauma care, open heart surgery and Level III neonatal care, as well as a successful new 90-bed hospital in Maple Grove.
Minnesota has a well-earned reputation for pioneering healthcare reform. So it's not surprising to see this study from Fairview Southdale Hospital. Working with UCare and Fairview Physician Associates, the hospital said it cut patient re-admissions by at least 30 percent over a nine month period.
Wanna buy a medical device startup? A down payment would be nice. As competition for medical device acquisitions heats up, Medtronic Inc. (NYSE:MDT) and Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE:BSX) are redeeming early bets on promising startups.
Ardian Inc. is a startup based in Mountain View, California. Yet its technology, a catheter-based treatment for hypertension, was created by Minnesota entrepreneurs, funded by a Minnesota venture capital firm, tested by a Minnesota hospital, and recently bought by a Minnesota medical device company for at least $800 million. Are you as disturbed about this as I am?
Dale Wahlstrom is an optimistic guy. But budget-cutting Republicans poised to control the House and Senate, and possibly the governor's office next year may test the optimism of the BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota CEO.