The top 10 FierceMedicalDevices news stories in 2014

Print 02 December 2014
Stacy Lawrence, FierceMedicalDevices

Transformational scientific leaps forward that fulfill fundamental patient needs have fueled the appetite for biotech in recent years. But this year, perhaps for the first time, visions for major med tech leaps forward with the integration of information and wireless technologies seemed to be everywhere. This offers a lot of tantalizing possibilities and readers were eager to explore them.

The most read story of the year was on one of these potential big breakthroughs; it covered Google's ($GOOG) first confirmation, after much speculation, that it is indeed working on a glucose monitoring contact lens through its purported moonshot program Google X. The fact that the story broke within the first few weeks of the year didn't hurt either.

Every time Google made another big move last year, it gave readers an excuse to revisit this article by Arlene Weintraub. Those moments included when in July Google and Novartis partnered up in the glucose monitoring contact lens effort and last month's revelation of the somewhat outlandish disease-detecting nanotech robots to which Google X has reportedly dedicated more than 100 employees.

Like with the Google contact lens story, developments in diabetes med tech were of huge interest to our readers last year as the disease continued to explode within the U.S. population and globally, as more people suffered from the ills, spurred on by modern diet and exercise habits that often accompany obesity. Currently, the Centers for Disease Control estimates that about 1 in 11 Americans is diabetic, with an astonishing 1 in 3 said to be in the precursor state of pre-diabetes.

Abbott's ($ABT) diabetes efforts were followed closely this year, with our third most popular story being on a massive recall of its Freestyle and Freestyle Lite glucose meters for problems that the FDA deemed potentially deadly. More promising for the company, which is currently struggling to right its diabetes franchise is the fifth most popular FMD story in 2014, on Abbott's CE mark for a blood glucose monitor that no longer requires any finger pricks even for calibration. It uses a wearable sensor patch with a tiny filament, instead of requiring drops of blood. (Another story on a tiny, smartphone plug-in blood glucose monitor also proved hugely popular, not quite making this year's list.)

Finally on diabetes, readers went almost inexplicably wild for a story about a Canadian approval for a new continuous glucose monitor (CGM) from Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) for Type 1 diabetics that incorporates technology from standard-setting CGM player DexCom ($DXCM).

Coming in second--to round out the top 5 for the year--was an elegant and insightful missive by former FMD editor Mark Hollmer. He reflected on what his experience having a pacemaker installed taught him about the limitations of and potential for innovation in a cardiac pacemaker market dominated by three enormous players that are focused mostly on incremental improvements.

In fact, another of his stories on the first U.S. implantation of a leadless pacemaker from Medtronic ($MDT), which had just followed a similar event for St. Jude Medical ($STJ), also made it onto the 2014 best read list. (Mark also wrote a moving meditation of the life sciences industry inspired by the death of his sister that was widely read.)

In addition, Abbott's recall wasn't the only one of note. Readers also flocked to stories from early in the year about a Philips surgical device recall that the company failed to disclose in 2012 and an FDA warning to Amgen ($AMGN) on its Prolia drug/device combo manufacturing problems.

Finance stories like big M&A and IPO deals never fail to pique reader interest. This year provided no exception to that rule. A late August story covering speculation of a sale by Johnson & Johnson of its vascular disease business Cordis for as much as $2 billion was sixth on the best read list for 2014. No word on any deal yet but keep watching this space, we'll let you know when it comes. (The first story on the sector-shaking Medtronic acquisition of Covidien ($COV) came in at #11 among the best read.)

And, finally, a story on the planned $100 million IPO for medical laser company Lumenis ($LMNS) filled the last spot. But the actual IPO didn't quite live up to the interest--the offering only raised $75 million and the share price has only slid as 2014 has unfolded. 

Source

Return