On Wednesday the FDA’s Circulatory System Devices Panel will once again review Boston Scientific’s Watchman left atrial appendage closure device for the prevention of stroke in atrial fibrillation patients (click here for the meeting materials). The panel will be the latest chapter in the long and contentious story of the Watchman. In 2010 the FDA issued a complete response letter and earlier this year a scandal broke out when the American College of Cardiology cancelled a prestigious late-breaking clinical trial presentation of the PREVAIL trial after the company broke an embargo by giving trial results to investors.
Wells Fargo analyst Lawrence Biegelsen predicts that the panel will be “contentious” but that ultimately the device will be approved next year. Although the trial missed one of its three c0-primary endpoints, the FDA reviewers emphasis on “the totality of the data” suggests a more benign FDA perspective, he writes.
One knowledgeable observer, Sanjay Kaul, who has served on several FDA panels, thinks the panel will indeed be contentious….
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Click here to read the full post on Forbes.
- Sanjay Kaul
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