Medtronic Gets FDA Approval For Accurian RF Ablation Platform

Medtronic Plc (NYSE:MDT) recently announced the receipt of 510 k clearance from the FDA for its Accurian RF ablation platform. This clearance will help the company with its strategy to strengthen position in the huge chronic pain management market.

More on Accurian RF Ablation Platform

The RF ablation platform is a minimally-invasive pain management procedure, which uses radio frequency for ablation of nerve tissues. This platform is equipped to perform enhanced procedures using cooled radio frequency probes, that can result in a wide array of lesions.

This newly-approved procedure is claimed to be more effective than traditional pain management method based on its advanced technology, ease-of-use, proficiency, and reliability.

Market Prospects

The worldwide market for chronic pain treatment is projected to see a CAGR of 6.4% during the 2019-2024 period. Data also shows that the market for chronic pain management devices should grow faster than the market for pain management drugs.

The rising demand for chronic pain management devices can be attributed to factors like growing occurrence of chronic ailments. Considering the abundant prospects, we believe the U.S. approval of this product is strategically-timed.

In the last-reported quarter, within the pain management segment, Medtronic registered high-single digit constant currency growth in Pain Stimulation on continued strength in the Intellis platform for spinal cord stimulation. The division also recorded mid-single digit constant currency growth in Interventional Pain.

Recent Developments Within Pain Management

Last October, Medtronic received FDA approval for its Synchromed II myPTM(TM) Personal Therapy Manager — a device for patients suffering from chronic pain. Around the same time, the company announced the launch of the Control Workflow (SM), which also aims to offer effective relief from severe pain.

In January 2019, Medtronic announced the enrolment of the first patient under the Embrace Targeted Drug Delivery clinical study to assess the effectiveness of the Synchromed II intracathedral drug delivery system.

Price Performance

Over the past three months, the Medtronic stock has underperformed the S&P 500 Index. The stock has lost 8.1% against the index’s gain of 1.5%.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Medtronic has a Zacks Rank of 3 (Hold). A few better-ranked stocks in the broader medical space are ABIOMED, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABMD) , Varian Medical Systems, Inc. (NYSE:VAR) and Masimo, Inc. (NASDAQ:MASI) . Notably, each of these stocks currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

ABIOMED’s long-term earnings growth rate is expected at 27.67%.

Varian’s long-term earnings growth rate is projected at 8.00%.

Masimo’s long-term earnings are projected to grow 15.60%.

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