MPO’s Most-Read Stories This Week—July 20

New facilities, new frontiers and new vocational ventures were top MPO pageview performers this past week.  

Integra gained the lead with its annoucement of plans to restart its PriMatrix and SurgiMend tissue technologies manufacturing in a new Braintree, Mass., facility. The company has been reassessing its plans to resume manufacturing the products since it received third-party audit findings for its Boston facility in March. The company no longer plans to restart PriMatrix and SurgiMend manufacturing at the Boston facility and will instead restart it at the Braintree site, executives reported.

Placing second in site visits was longtime top 30 member Edwards Lifesciences, which captured reader interest for exercising its option to acquire Innovalve Bio Medical, an early-stage transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR) company. Edwards initially invested in Innovalve in 2017. The deal boosts Edwards’ TMVR technologies to address the large unmet structural heart patient population.

Edwards’ top 30 clubmate Boston Scientific Corp. landed in the top five, as one of its former executives joined CMR Surgical as non-executive board chairman. Daniel Moore worked for Boston Scientific for nearly two decades, assuming several senior executive roles including president of intercontinental and distribution management.

Another top 30 groupee—Danaher—drove significant traffic with word of its two new Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) and College of American Pathologists (CAP)-certified labs. The two labs aim to accelerate development of companion diagnostics and Complementary Diagnostics. The first CLIA-pending lab, scheduled to open this month in Newcastle, U.K., will be a hub for collaborative research with pharmaceutical and academic institutions. Danaher subsidiary Leica Biosystems is hosting the lab in a new building on its campus. Danaher’s other center of innovation in the United States is scheduled to open later this year. It will include capabilities like immunohistochemistry, polymerase chain reaction, and immunoassay.

Autonomix also garnered interest among cybervisitors for gaining the ability to license RF Innovations’ intellectual property to its Apex 6 radiofrequency generator. Apex 6 is an FDA-cleared ablation technology to lesion neural tissue for peripheral nervous system pain management.
 

1. Integra to Open New Braintree, Mass. Manufacturing Facility

2. Edwards to Buy Innovalve, an Early-Stage TMVR Company

3. CMR Surgical Appoints Boston Scientific Veteran as Non-Executive Chair

4. Danaher to Open 2 New Centers of Innovation in Diagnostics

5. Autonomix Gains License for RF Innovations Ablation Tech IP