A SERVICE
OF 
Transplant
Business News
December 1, 1997 · by TNN Medical Reporter Virginia
Baskerville
-
A number of transplantation-related news stories occurred in late
November:
- Medical device company Thoratec Laboratories Corp. of Pleasanton,
California, announced third quarter product revenues of $2.2 million, an 8%
increase over the same period last year. The company attributed the increased
revenue to ongoing sales of Thoratec’s ventricular assist device (VAD
System). During the quarter, the system was implanted in the youngest and
smallest patient to date—an 8-year-old child who weighed less than 22 kg.
- United Resource Networks added Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, to
its network of adult organ transplantation centers. Jewish Hospital will
perform heart and kidney transplants. Established in 1989, United Resource
Networks has become a leader in the development of transplant networks and
provides a link between health care providers, research, treatment, and
patients in need of care.
- Shares of Aastrom Biosciences grew 63% after the company said it had
received a U.S. patent on a process for producing human cells outside the body,
include stem cells, according to Reuters. Aastrom, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, is
conducting clinical trials to evaluate the transplantation of stem and blood
cells produced from bone marrow and umbilical cord blood.
- Total Renal Care Holdings of Torrance, California, is buying Renal
Treatment Centers of Berwyn, Pennsylvania, in a $1.3 billion merger that is
expected to solidify the new combined company’s position as the largest
national independent provider of dialysis services in the United States. The
merger between the country’s third- and fourth-largest dialysis firms
would create a company that operates 358 facilities and serves about 25,900
patients in the United States, South America, and Europe. About $800 million in
annual sales are projected.
- Gensia Laboratories of San Diego received approval of an abbreviated new
drug application from the Food and Drug Administration for bumetanide
injection, a drug indicated for the acute treatment of edema associated with
congestive heart failure and hepatic and renal disease in patients with
impaired gastrointestinal absorption or where oral treatment is not practical.
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