Medical Device Daily | Boston Scientific Captivates EMR Space and Plants Seeds for Future Innovation
By Omar Ford
Staff Writer
Boston Scientific (Marlborough, Mass.) launched a new product for the gastrointestinal cancer market and flexed its innovation muscle through an alliance with The Innovation Lab (Newport Beach, Calif.), an incubator that sources ideas from staff among member-owned hospitals across the U.S. from concept stage, to prototypes and end products.
First, the company reported launching its FDA cleared Captivator EMR (endoscopic mucosal resection) device. The technology is used in a procedure that’s a minimally invasive alternative to an esophagectomy, a surgical technique that removes part of the esophagus in upper GI tract cases. EMR enables staging and removal of precancerous tissue and early esophageal cancer in the upper GI tract during an endoscopic outpatient procedure. The Captivator EMR device is specifically designed for upper GI EMR and provides physicians with enhanced visualization, control and easy passage of devices.
“We have the opportunity to flatten the specimen, which may improve patient diagnostic outcomes,” a spokesperson for Boston Scientific told MDD regarding the use of the device. “We’ve also included a tapered tip design and narrower outer diameter, which may facilitate easier intubation.”
The technology provides physicians with a 360 degree unobstructed peripheral view for more complete visualization of the diseased area when performing resections. And unlike other EMR devices, accessory devices such as the Boston Scientific Resolution Clip and Interject Needle can be used with the device during the procedure to manage potential complications quickly.
Boston Scientific said it plans to launch a post market study regarding the device. The company has enrolled the first patient in the multi-center, prospective, post-market registry. It will evaluate the performance of the device for endoscopic resection of abnormal tissue growth known as early neoplasia, specifically in Barrett’s Esophagus in the 300 patient study slated to be at 16 clinical centers throughout eight countries. The study should be completed sometime in 2016.
“The registry results should continue to bring awareness in the physician community regarding EMR as a procedure option for Barrett’s Esophagus,” a company spokesperson said.
The device fits into Boston Scientific’s Medsurg unit, a business that saw quarterly sales go from $580 million in 2Q14 to $583 million in 2Q15, according to the company’s latest earning’s report. The company said the Captivator EMR has the potential to play in the growing GI cancer market. The company noted GI cancer is a $960 million market, growing 4 percent each year.
Drive into innovation
Boston Scientific recently signed an agreement with The Innovation Institute (La Palma, Calif.), a company structured to cultivate innovative solutions to transform health care delivery. Through the partnership, Boston Scientific would become the founding medical device sponsor of The Innovation Institute’s Innovation Lab.
“The main heart and soul of what we do is provide commercialization associates the ability to work with their organizations to put an innovation program in place to tap the creativity of the physicians and employees to come up with ideas that solve health care problems,” Larry Stosko, executive VP, The Innovation Institute, told MDD. “We help them take those ideas to help get licensing agreements, joint development agreements, or start up new companies to commercialize those ideas so that the participating hospitals and inventors get additional revenue sources outside of the reimbursement models.” More
