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It looks like only the due diligence and PR teams are not on holiday this week as we see a flurry of announcements about M&A activity in medical devices, from 3D HD cameras to Therapeutic Supports to “Nutraceuticals”.

If you’re a fan Twitter’s great, but if you’re in any way busy it can become something of a sink for your time, which is why we’ve tried to help out by adding a customisable twitter feed page to medlatest. All you need to do is pick up to six feeds from our suggested list and each time you revisit our site…. there they are ready for your whistle-stop read.

If you’re a medtech company with a new product or just a need for a higher profile, give it ten minutes and you’ll come up with stories that can become online assets. So why are we all so coy?

With the opening of its new $45M facility Covidien’s investment in China is significant and a sure sign that the healthcare giant sees the Far East as the medtech powerhouse in years to come.

Edwards Lifesciences was not likely to let a BMJ article go unanswered, so it’s unsurprising to see the purveyor of the Sapien transcatheter valve issuing a stout defence of the clinical evidence behind its baby. But as a clinician, what are you supposed to do?… wait until the body of evidence is so significant as to be incontrovertible, or use your own judgement within the confines of regulatory approval?

Belgian researchers have stirred up a hornets nest with their assertion that evidence for TAVI means its use should be more limited than is the case, and furthermore that we’re still not getting the whole picture.

The 15th Medtech Investing Europe Conference takes place in September and as a Medlatest visitor you’re entitled to a helpful 40% discount. Find out more about the event in the full article.

You won’t see this feature very often… if at all… on other sites. At medlatest.com you can now select from our list of twitter feeds, the ones you’re interested in and bingo, as if by magic you have a customised medical device twitter page.

St.Jude’s CEO Dan Sparks used the word “favorable”(sic) to describe the outcome from its giant study into whether closure of a patent foramen ovale using the company’s Amplatzer device has a positive impact on incidence of cryptogenic stroke. Some commentators are suggesting he should have kept schtum until the clinical results are published later in the year.

Maquet is trumpeting the introduction of its new TEGRIS integrated OR system, which it says is characterised by its powerful and compact nature. At around a quarter of the size of its predecessor, it is a flexible and space-saving unit for use in the OR and certainly looks light years ahead of the operating environment we remember.

Conmed and Exactech have announced that they will collaborate to deliver educational programs which cover all aspects of shoulder and knee repair, in a way defining synergy as neither company could deliver the full spectrum single handed.

Johnson & Johnson has just announced sales of $16.5 billion for the second quarter of 2012, a decrease of 0.7% as compared to the second quarter of 2011, albeit with a significant currency loss painting a gloomier picture than the top line figures suggest.

U.S Regulatory Agency the FDA is issuing guidelines under which it will give medical device makers feedback before they submit a product- or research-specific application.

MIS Sacroiliac joint specialist SI-BONE, Inc. has issued a press release announcing that it has reached a significant milestone for its iFuse Implant System® with over 3,000 patients implanted. The device is used to minimally invasively fuse the sacroiliac joint.

Endometrial preparation does not seem to impact on success of EmbryoGlue, from Swedish fertility company Vitrolife, as study presented at ESHRE conference shows significant pregnancy rate improvement in all cases.

Ethicon has issued a dire warning about inappropriate use of its Evicel® spray applicator, which raises the question of how well important information like this gets distributed outside US.