FDAnews Device Daily Bulletin

Medtronic and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals will collaborate to pursue potential therapies designed to treat neurodegenerative disorders such as Huntington's, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

Inverness Medical Innovations has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Binax, a privately held company located in Portland, Maine.

International medical technology company Ventracor has received conditional approval from the FDA for a feasibility study of its cardiac assist device in

Royal Philips Electronics has introduced an ultrasound system that provides ultrasound departments that serve a diverse patient population and have a restricted budget with advanced high definition imaging and sophisticated features previously unavailable in their price range.

West Pharmaceutical Services, a maker of closure systems and syringe components for use with injectable drugs, has announced that, effective Feb. 8, it completed the sale of a substantial majority interest in its drug delivery business to Archimedes Pharma, a new UK-based European specialty pharma company backed by Warburg Pincus.

MatrixOne has announced that LifeScan Scotland, which makes blood glucose monitors for diabetics, selected MatrixOne's product life cycle management technology to accelerate product development and time-to-market.

CryoLife, a biomaterials and biosurgical device company, has entered into a credit agreement with Wells Fargo Foothill, part of Wells Fargo & Company, providing for a revolving credit facility in an aggregate amount equal to the lesser of $15 million or a specified borrowing base.

Healthcare company Zi Medical said that its first groundbreaking fluid infusion device was on track to make its market debut this year.

NeoGenomics has received all regulatory approvals to offer flow cytometry testing services and has formally entered this market.

Patient safety will drive the use of the next generation of active-RFID (radio frequency identification) location tags from Radianse, an innovator of indoor positioning solutions used to locate and associate equipment and people in hospitals.

NovaBone Products has announced that results of an independent clinical study of 20 spine fusion surgery patients showed that the company's FDA-cleared synthetic bone graft product, NovaBone, stimulated new bone formation on an "equivalent basis" compared to "BMP-2" (bone morphogenic protein) when each was used in a composite.

NeuroMetrix, a medical device company focused on the design, development and sale of proprietary products used to diagnose neuropathies, announced it named Brad Smith to serve as its chief financial officer, effective Feb. 14.

A cot-side device that checks vital signs such as heart rate and breathing could save the lives of many more premature babies, say doctors.