Coronavirus Hurts Big Medtech's Bottom Line 

As the Chinese healthcare system focuses on containing the spread of the coronavirus, medical device companies doing business in China are seeing lower procedure volumes, which means lower-than-expected revenue in the first quarter. Boston Scientific, for example, expects the virus to lower first-quarter revenue by $10 million to $40 million.

J&J and Apple Have Big Hopes for Heartline Study

Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceutical unit and Apple opened enrollment for the Heartline Study, which aims to secure up to 150,000 participants. The study is designed to find out if the Heartline Study app on iPhone and heart health features on Apple Watch can improve health outcomes, including reducing the risk of stroke, with earlier detection of atrial fibrillation.

Senseonics 'Promises' to Go the Distance in CGM

Seenseonics will soon complete its PROMISE study, which is designed to evaluate the Eversence continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) device in patients who had the device inserted subcutaneously for 180 days. Now, FDA is allowing the company to keep a subgroup of study patients using the device for a total of one year. This will help the compan gather feasibility data on the safety and accuracy of the 365-day Eversense sensor.