April 25, 2017 — News and updates from the medical technology community.
Expansions/Spinoffs/New Services/Moves
Proxy Biomedical Ltd., a provider of outsourced design, development, and manufacturing services for implantable medical devices, has formed a new group company and brand, Aran Biomedical . According to the company, the new corporate identity is part of an overall rebranding and restructuring strategy, to position the company in line with the broader range of capabilities now servicing key growth markets of cardiovascular, general surgery, and orthopedics. The announcement follows a significant facility expansion and investment in state-of-the-art equipment that enhances medical textile, coating, and covering service offerings for its key markets.
Qosina has established a wholly owned China entity (柯思纳), Qosina Trading Company Limited. Located in Shanghai, this office provides its customers the benefit of delivering goods manufactured in China directly to their operations in China, reducing or eliminating related logistics and customs expenses. Along with its local partner for distribution, HNG Medical, it says the new location allows it to better serve its global customers with their China operations.
CertifiGroup , a product test and certification laboratory based in Cary, NC, has launched “The Weekly Whitepaper”™ Program. The library features wide variety of compliance topics, including understanding the standards, learning how to do the tests, and learning how to design for compliance. The white papers can be accessed at www.certifigroup.com . There is also an option to sign up for a free weekly subscription.
Mergers/Acquisitions/Collaborations/Licensing
Valencell, maker of wearable and hearable biometric sensor technology, and Firstbeat , a provider of physiological analytics for sports, fitness, and well-being, has announced a strategic collaboration to ensure Valencell’s biometric sensor systems and Firstbeat physiological analytics work seamlessly together and to explore to full potential of what can biometric wearables can achieve.
BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) and C. R. Bard, Inc. have announced a definitive agreement under which BD will acquire Bard for $317 per Bard common share in cash and stock, for a total consideration of $24 billion. The agreement has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies. Bard specializes in vascular, urology, oncology and surgical specialty products.
Boston University has established the Precision Diagnostics Center (PDC). Created by Catherine Klapperich , a Boston University professor of biomedical engineering, the new center is designed to be an “interdisciplinary initiative that will capitalize on the synergy among faculty researchers to invent new medical diagnostic tools.” PDC builds on the success, momentum, and infrastructure of the National Institutes of Health Center for Future Technologies in Cancer Care (CFTCC), which Klapperich also directs at BU and which will now fall under the umbrella of the new center. The PDC’s mission will expand to include cancer and innovations that leverage point-of-care technologies to enable precision medicine across a wider swath of diseases.
Lombard Medical , a medical device company focused on endovascular aneurysm repair, and MicroPort Scientific Corporation , a leading global manufacturer and marketer of a diversified portfolio of medical devices, have finalized the definitive agreements to their strategic partnership first announced on December 19, 2016. The partnership will allow Lombard to accelerate commercialization in China and other global markets for its abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) product portfolio: Aorfix™, the only stent graft to hold global approvals to treat AAA with aortic neck angles up to 90 degrees, and Altura®, an innovative stent graft and ultra-low profile delivery system that offers an easy to use and predictable treatment option for standard AAA anatomy.
UL , a global safety science company, has acquired Emergo , an Austin, Texas-based privately held firm that provides regulatory value-added services and market access services to medical device manufacturers worldwide. According to UL, the integration of UL and Emergo’s services will increase efficiencies, widen global access, and move products to markets more quickly for medical device manufacturers. UL plans to retain Emergo's Austin headquarters and its global offices. Emergo’s president and CEO, Rene Van De Zande, as well as its more than 200 employees will remain with the company.
Leadership News
J-Pac Medical , which specializes in implantable textiles, turnkey packaging, thermoformed packaging, and manufacturing services for medical devices, has appointed Tim Valentine as vice president of operations and Fred Finocchiaro as manager of business development. Prior to joining J-Pac Medical, Valentine held operations management positions at Watts Water Technologies, Freudenberg-NOK Sealing Technologies and Eaton Corp Fluid Power Division. Finocchiaro held senior sales positions at medical companies including Thermo Fisher Scientific and Symmetry Medical, Inc.
William L. Clippard, chairman of the board for Clippard Instrument Laboratory , recently received the highly prestigious Stillman Robinson Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of The Ohio State University for his commitment to the field of engineering. The award honors retired or emeritus alumni who have distinguished themselves over their lifetimes by contributing to the advancement of their chosen profession.
Two Pore Guys, Inc., (2PG) has announced that Jordan Hubbard has joined 2PG as vice president of engineering, overseeing both the software and hardware development of the company’s flagship product — a hand-held, single-molecule biosensor using solid-state nanopores. Hubbard held the roles of manager and director of engineering at Apple from 2001 to 2013, where he managed a number of the core components of MacOS and iOS, as well as key security technologies.
The Medical Device Innovation Consortium (MDIC) has announced that Rachael L. Fleurence, Ph.D., has been selected to serve as the National Evaluation System for health Technology (NEST) Coordinating Center’s first executive director, effective April 24, 2017. She joins MDIC from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) where she led PCORI’s initiative to build the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network, or PCORnet, for the past five years. PCORnet has been a transformational effort to engage patients and leverage electronic health data to improve the speed and efficiency of clinical research in the United-States.
Marketplace
Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence is setting the stage for HxGN LIVE 2017 , Hexagon’s international conference, at the luxury Venetian Resort Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, June 13–16. The four-day event showcases the latest data-driven developments enabled by Hexagon's newest metrology and manufacturing solutions for the Smart Factory. This year’s theme is “the Shape of Potential.” To register or for more information, visit www.hxgnlive.com .
The LoRa Alliance™ , a global association of over 400 companies backing the LoRaWAN™ standard for low-power wide-area IoT (Internet of Things) networks (LPWANs), announced that Comcast has formally joined the alliance as a sponsor member and will join its board of directors. Additionally, Comcast will host the alliance’s 8th All-Members Meeting, Open House and Marketplace Exhibition June 12–14, 2017, at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, PA.
Bracket , a clinical trial technology and specialty services provider, has launched a new Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) electronic patient-reported outcome (ePRO) study in Japan. This study highlights the importance of BYOD use in clinical studies as an integral component of electronic clinical outcomes assessments (eCOA). Bracket is among the first to utilize BYOD in a randomized clinical trial in Japan. BYOD adoption is slowly gaining momentum, but the many ways it has enhanced the effectiveness of clinical research serve as an argument for why mobile support should become an essential element of other eCOA platforms.
