Top Device Companies

Siemens, GE, Royal Philips See Profits In Selling Imaging Devices To China

Siemens, Royal Philips Electronics and General Electric seek to take advantage of China’s $125 million health care-reform plans. The three device makers are vying to supply CT-scanners to new hospitals and clinics that will need medical devices to provide the universal health care promised by the government over the next three years. Although Chinese companies provide little competition, some of the device makers complain China policy is too protective of local technology, making it difficult for foreign firms to operate. (Click here for more – a subscription may be required)

“CT Scan Makers Gun For China” – Wall Street Journal (U.S.) (7/27/10)

Medical device manufacturers facing many challenges: from the rising clout of group purchasing organizations (GPOs) to payment bundling and physicians' growing allegiance with hospitals in product price negotiations. Get all the answers now in new Medtech Insight's new 24-page Special Report: Medical Device Landscape: How regulatory changes and cost control measures are reshaping the industry. Available for purchase now!

Siemens, Philips, Toshiba, GE PET Scans Grow By Third Per Year

Siemens, Royal Philips,Toshiba and General Electric are benefiting from a 30 percent-per-year increase in the use of imaging tests such as PET scans for elderly people with cancer. The four companies make the devices, including PET imagers that are charged at the rate of $2,000 per test. Despite the costs, use of the scans rose by one-third a year between 1999 to 2006. The report of the increase in the use of the scans for Medicare patients was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (Click here for more)

“Cancer Imaging Tests Increase More Than 30 Percent Each Year In Study” – Bloomberg (4/27/10)

Medical device manufacturers facing many challenges: from the rising clout of group purchasing organizations (GPOs) to payment bundling and physicians' growing allegiance with hospitals in product price negotiations. Get all the answers now in new Medtech Insight's new 24-page Special Report: Medical Device Landscape: How regulatory changes and cost control measures are reshaping the industry. Available for purchase now!

Siemens, GE, Royal Philips Seen Taking Brunt Of Health-Reform Cuts

Siemens AG, General Electric and Royal Philips Electronics are expected to be the only members of the medical-device industry to suffer directly from government health-reform plans under consideration. Part of the plan envisions reducing the number of medical imaging scans covered under the Medicare plan. Their lobbying organization, Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance, says it is fighting "dated perceptions" about the imaging sector, encouraged in part by its rapid expansion in recent years. (Click here for more - a subscription may be required)

"Medical Imaging Under The Gun In Health-Reform Push" - Wall Street Journal (8/14/09)

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Respironics, Royal Philips Sleep Devices Seen Having Greater Importance

Respironics, Royal Philips Electronics and ResMed could benefit from a government-funded study that concludes obesity increases the possibility of sleep apnea, a problem that sometimes causes death. A lengthy study of more than 6,400 people showed that nearly half of adults over 40 with disrupted breathing and sleep more likely to die than normal sleepers. The National Institutes of Health estimates more than 12 million Americans have sleep apnea. Respironics, Royal Philips and ResMed make continuous positive airway pressure equipment to keep breathing regular during sleep. (Click here for more)

“Sleep Apnea Rises With Obesity, Boosts Deaths In Middle-Aged” – Bloomberg (8/18/09)

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Respironics, Masimo Settle Suits Over Monitoring Device Technology

Respironics and Masimo have settled a lawsuit surrounding monitoring device technology, with each dropping claims against the other. Under the agreement, Masimo has agreed to a scheculed phase-out of its MRS oximetry technology, although the settlement said Masimo’s devices to measure blood constituents non-invasively do not use the technology in dispute. Respironics is a subsidiary of Royal Philips Electronics. (Click here for more)

"Masimo Settles Suit With Philips" – Reuters (7/17/09)

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Royal Philips To Buy Cardium’s InnerCool For $12.8 Million

Royal Philips says it has agreed to buy InnerCool Therapies, a subsidiary of Cardium Therapeutics, for $12.8 million, more than double what Cardium paid for it three years ago. CEO Steve Rusckowski of Philips Healthcare said the purchase would help Royal Philips expand its medical technologies business. InnerCool’s devices are aimed at treating hypothermia and the company already has an FDA approved catheter-based device on the market. (Click here for more)

“Philips To Spend $12.75 Million On InnerCool” – San Diego Business Journal (7/16/09)

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Market & Industry Briefs

Article preview reprinted from Medtech Insight - June 2009

Brief summaries of recent medtech market and industry developments. This month we cover new developments in the CRM industry, Barrx Medical's breakthrough on RF ablation for for Barrett's esophagus, and CMS' decision not to cover computed tomography colongraphy for colorectal cancer screening.

Royal Philips Buys Canada’s Traxtal For Image-Guided Devices

Royal Philips Electronics has acquired Canadian device maker Traxtal, with which it has been in a partnership for the past three years. The purchase price was not disclosed, but Philips has spent more than $13.3 billion in the past four years to increase its presence in the medical and lighting markets. The Traxtal buy gives Royal Philips Electronics, the world’s largest maker of patient-monitoring systems, an entry into the market for image-guided navigation. Philips sees that market as worth $600 million by 2015.(Click here for more)

“Philips Buys Canada’s Traxtal To Boost Health-Care Division” – Bloomberg (5/4/09)

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The Digital Pathology Revolution: Breaking the Glass Ceiling

Article preview from Start-Up - May 2009

Among diagnostic specialties, anatomic pathology is the last holdout against the digital revolution. Pathologists still detect disease by looking at tissue samples on a glass slide through a microscope, just as they have done for a hundred years. But in the last couple of years, start-up companies have begun to break the bondage of pathologists to slides. Their solution: platforms for digitizing slides so they can be accessed through computer networks by clinicians anywhere in the world. Two start-ups, Aperio and BioImagene, have led the way and now all the big imaging manufacturers, the microscope companies and biomarker developers want in.

Japan's Medtech Regulatory Rebirth

Article preview from Medtech Insight - March 2009

Although Japan has a reputation as a difficult market for new medical products to enter, the government and several public/private initiatives are making ground-breaking efforts to change that image. Several initiatives--some modeled after US Food & Drug Administration practices--will be launched in 2009. These changes, as well as others made in 2008, already are cutting into the drawn-out review times that manufacturers historically have had to face as a normal part of doing business in the country.