Device Center Seeks Panel’s Advice On Conveying Product Risks

A framework to end the Iran war is in place but fractured supply chains can’t recover overnight. Data from India suggests solvent prices have generally cooled from April peaks, but API costs stay elevated or even climbed in June for some products.

REUSE OF DISPOSABLE CARDIAC CATHETERS TARGETED BY FDA in an effort to address safety concerns about reuse of single-use products. The cardiac catheter product area "seems to jump up as one that is an area for us to focus on," Larry Spears, director of the Office of Compliance's Division of Enforcement III in FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said June 24 at a Food Drug and Law Institute conference held in Washington, D.C.

St Jude Medical and Spire are to develop anti-bacterial heart valve sewing cuffs using Spire's Spi-Argent silver coating process. The agreement covers a variety of valve designs as well as ancillary components. The treatment is aimed at reducing the incidence of endocarditis, a rare but dangerous complication of valve transplant which has a mortality rate as high as 60%.

Nissho saw sales rise only 1% to ¥17 billion ($930 million) in the year to March 1997. The Japanese company's net income was Yen3 billion, compared with Yen1.7 billion for the previous year, reports Reuters. Nissho produces disposable medical equipment.