One third of patients who were discharged after a PCI failed to fill their clopidogrel prescriptions within three days, according to a study published online May 28 in Journal of the American Heart Association, at the risk of serious consequences. Findings showed that the time following hospital release to the filling of the prescription dramatically influences outcomes.

Persistence paid off for CardioMEMS, maker of a miniaturized implantable system for monitoring patients with heart failure. After several years, the company received FDA approval for its namesake device, which has opened the doors for its acquisition by St. Jude Medical.

Volcano will pay up to $130 million to acquire AtheroMed, giving Volcano access to a recently FDA-approved treatment for peripheral artery disease (PAD).

Spectranetics Corp. and AngioScore penned a $230 million deal to serve the peripheral and coronary markets by making AngioScore a wholly owned subsidiary of Spectranetics.  

Boehringer Ingelheim will pay $650 million in a comprehensive settlement over its anticoagulant dabigatran. The company faced thousands of lawsuits in the U.S. from patients who claimed the drug caused severe and fatal bleeding.

The Accreditation for Cardiovascular Excellence (ACE) is proud to announce the participation of every ACE Board Member at the 2014 Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) Scientific Sessions in Las Vegas, NV, May 28-31, 2014. First, Charles E. Chambers, MD, FSCAI, President-Elect of SCAI and ACE Board Member, will kick-off SCAI's inaugural Cath Lab Leadership Boot Camp, a unique two-day educational event designed to address the needs of cath lab managers and directors and those who aspire to those roles.

Innovative treatments for heart failure are lacking, leaving the nearly six million Americans who suffer from the condition with little hope for a cure. But thanks to an $11.5-million Program Project Grant (PPG) from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), scientists at Temple University School of Medicine are now set to further their investigation of key molecular mechanisms in heart failure, an effort that is expected to lead to the development of new heart therapies.

Covidien today announced nine-month data from the VISIBILITY Iliac study, which confirms the safety and effectiveness of the treatment of lesions of the common and external iliac arteries with the Visi-Pro(tm) balloon-expandable stent system. Results were presented by co-National Principal Investigator John Rundback, MD, Holy Name Medical Center, Teaneck, N.J., during an oral presentation this week at EuroPCR Scientific Congress in Paris.