Time to Focus on Assisted Living

MedilinkWM is reinforcing its position and activities in the assisted living sector. The new name for its division dedicated to this sector is Alvolution. The name has been created to reflect the organisation’s role and position in stimulating the next stage in the evolution of technological advances for home-based intelligent healthcare. These are designed to support independent living for the elderly and those living with long-term health conditions. Currently, there are just over 15 million people living with chronic conditions in the UK, but by 2030 this is expected to more than double in those aged over 65s. Read more...

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BIOMEDevice: Leukocare’s Postcoating Stabilisation Technology Preserves Biomolecular Functionality

Think of it as the confection that holds together a fruitcake. That is how Michael Scholl, CEO of Leukocare, described his company’s surface functionalisation and binding technology to BIOMEDevice Europe attendees. It was one of several papers presented under the thematic umbrella of Enabling Technologies for Manufacturing Combination Products at the event held last week at the Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris. Read more…

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Special Delivery: RF Ablation and Breath-Actuated Nasal Spray Technologies Featured at BIOMEDevice

Some novel drug-delivery technologies were presented to conference attendees at last week’s BIOMEDevice Europe event in Paris. Two, in particular, got my attention: the use of radiofrequency (RF) ablation to push drugs through the skin and a breath-activated intranasal delivery device.
Biotech drugs will account for more than US$50 billion in sales this year, according to Galit Levin, Vice President, R&D Pharma, at Transpharma. “Almost all of these drugs require an injection device,” he noted, adding that there is a tremendous opportunity to develop a device that can deliver these drugs less invasively than the traditional syringe. Transdermal delivery is an attractive option for patients, but it has limitations because relatively few drugs can passively diffuse across the skin barrier at therapeutically useful rates. Transpharma, headquartered in Israel, has developed an alternative: RF ablation. Read more…

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BIOMEDevice: Sharp Climb Predicted in Demand for Self-Injection Systems

The BD Physioject Disposable AutoInjector received very high marks from patient groups for usability and accuracy.

The state of the market for self-injection devices is healthy and growing at a steady clip, noted Joel Cotten, European Product Manager/Marketing, BD Medical – Pharmaceutical Systems during the BIOMEDevice Europe conference in Paris. Currently, 15% of all injections are performed by the patient, he told attendees, a percentage that will continue to rise.

“With the exception of cancer and vaccine treatments, most drugs in the pipeline will be delivered via self-injection systems,” said Cotten. Acknowledging the inherent difficulty in assigning a real value to a device that is often developed and sold in tandem with a drug, he estimated that the market for self-injection systems was upwards of US$1 billion in 2007 and that it would reach US$2 billion by 2012. Read more…

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BIOMEDevice: IP Insights

C’est clair et net, as a French friend of mine used to say, punctuating the phrase with clarinette (French humour—don’t ask): there is immense interest in combination products. The first BIOMEDevice Europe event, co-located with Pharmapack in Paris at the beginning of the week, was tremendously successful. The show floor at the Grande Halle de la Villette was packed—attendance for the co-located events shattered last year’s numbers—and so were the conferences. I attended many of the BIOMEDevice sessions. Over the next couple of days, I will pass along some of the highlights in medtechinsider. Here is a summary of a session devoted to IP related issues. Read more…

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Emergo Group Acquires UK Medical Device Company

Medical device consulting firm Emergo Group Inc. has acquired Sheffield, England–based Mediqol Ltd. Emergo operates European offices in France and The Netherlands. Both Emergo and Mediqol help medical device manufacturers obtain regulatory clearance. As a result of the merger, Mediqol has changed its name to Emergo UK Ltd. Read more…

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Researchers Work to Develop “Safer” Plastics that Lock in Plasticisers

From the Wire: Scientists have published the first report on a new way of preventing potentially harmful plasticisers — the source of long-standing human health concerns — from migrating from one of the most widely used groups of plastics. The advance could lead to a new generation of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics that are safer than those now used in packaging, medical tubing and other products, they say. Read more…

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Alcan Packaging Acquisition Completed

Amcor has announced that its acquisition of the Alcan Packaging businesses has been completed. The company’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Ken MacKenzie, said, “We are delighted to finalise the acquisition of the Alcan Packaging assets and have their talented team join Amcor. From a strategic perspective, the businesses we have acquired are strongly aligned with our nominated growth segments, and provide the ability to substantially improve the value proposition for our customers.” Read more...

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Celebrating the Laser’s First Half Century

The laser will celebrate its 50^th birthday in May 2010, and festivities are already well under way. As I mention in the forthcoming February issue of European Medical Device Technology, a group of photonics and scientific associations is marking the milestone with a series of LaserFest events at trade shows and conferences around the world. For its part, Trumpf, a pioneer in industrial laser processing, has set up an entertaining and informative website honouring the contribution of the laser to everything from digital recordings to implantable electronic devices. Read more…

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Bayer’s New Carbon Nanotube Manufacturing Facility Is Said to Be World’s Largest

Bayer MaterialScience has reported that it has opened a new pilot facility for the manufacture of carbon nanotubes in Leverkusen, Germany. The company has invested some €22-million in the planning, development and construction of the facility, which is reportedly the largest of its kind in the world and has an annual capacity of 200 metric tons.
Read more…

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Pharmapack/BIOMEDevice: Introducing Mikron Automation

Pharmapack/BIOMEDevice got off to a rousing start today in the Grande halle de la Villette in Paris. The aisles were seriously jammed. Getting from one end of the building to the other required some precision slaloming. As I was weaving my way down one of the aisles in the early afternoon, I bumped into Jean-François Bauer of Mikron. “I have some news for you,” he said as he pulled out a chair for me.

Mikron Assembly Technology, he informed me, was now going by the name Mikron Automation, which groups Mikron S.A. Boudry in Switzerland, Mikron Corp. in the United States, Mikron Singapore and Mikron Shanghai. Read more…

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Notified Body SGS Expands into IVD Certification

SGS has extended its medical device Notified Body status to include Directive 98/79/EC for in vitro diagnostic (IVD) medical devices. The company’s initial scope of designation as an IVD Directive Notified Body includes all LIST B devices and Self-Test IVD devices. This scope will be further expanded to include all LIST A devices during the latter part of 2010. Read more...

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