Medtronic and Bain Capital, a global private investment firm, today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which affiliates of Bain Capital will acquire Physio-Control. The stock of Physio-Control and related entities will be purchased for cash in a transaction valued at approximately $487 million.

November 16, 2011 — Non-adherence to antiplatelet therapy – which prevents blood clots following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) – was associated with higher rates of both ischemic and bleeding events at 30 days. Results of the PARIS registry were presented at the 23rd annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium, sponsored by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation.

November 16, 2011 — The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) issued a response voicing concerns over the implications of a study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

November 16, 2011 – BSP Biological Signal Processing, which develops and manufactures products for the non-invasive, accurate diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD), recently announced the successful completion of a comprehensive clinical research study evaluating the performance of the company’s HyperQ technology in diagnosing CAD. An article describing the study and its results was accepted for publication in the American Journal of Cardiology.

November 16, 2011 – Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development announced that adding oral rivaroxaban to standard antiplatelet therapy significantly reduced the composite primary efficacy endpoint of cardiovascular-related deaths, heart attacks or strokes in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) compared to those receiving standard therapy alone. Results from the pivotal Phase 3 ATLAS ACS 2 TIMI 51 trial presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions and published in the New England Journal of Medicine also showed that rivaroxaban significantly increased rates of major bleeding, but did not create an excess risk of fatal bleeding over standard therapy alone.

November 15, 2011 — A two-year study of patients in the landmark PARTNER trial confirms the one-year findings and supports transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) as the standard-of-care.

November 15, 2011 – The risk of late stent thrombosis (ST) in the first generation of drug-eluting stents continues for up to seven years after implantation, and certain types of patients, including smokers and those who are younger, are at higher risk, according to results of the DESERT registry. Results of the trial were presented at the 23rd annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium, sponsored by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation.

November 15, 2011 — A clinical trial comparing prasugrel to clopidogrel for patients with high on-clopidogrel platelet reactivity (HCPR) following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was ended early. This was due to relatively few occurrences of cardiac death or myocardial infarction – the primary endpoint – at six-month follow-up.