It isn't unusual for top medical device maker Medtronic (MDT 0.62%) to score regulatory approvals for its goods. Nevertheless, in the healthcare field, nearly any regulatory win is considered a convincing victory for the company behind the product.
That was the dynamic behind the more than 2% bump in share price Medtronic enjoyed on Monday. That performance topped the broader stock market, at least if we go by the 1.4% rise of the benchmark S&P 500 index.
Percept is now an approved product in the U.S.
Early Monday afternoon, Medtronic reported that its Percept RC Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) system had received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
This product, an electricity-powered neurostimulator, is the specialty healthcare company's latest offering in the Percept lineup. According to its maker, the Percept products are the only sensing-enabled DBS goods available today. They allow for personalized treatment for people suffering from movement disorders like Parkinson's disease and epilepsy. Medtronic said that around 11 million individuals in the U.S. have such afflictions.
DBS is a therapy that uses a surgically implanted medical device -- Medtronic likens this to a pacemaker for the heart -- to transmit electric signals directly to areas of the brain affected by movement disorders.
This isn't the first Percept, and it likely won't be the last
The new Percept should see brisk takeup from its target patient population, given its considerable numbers. In its press release on the latest approval for the line, Medtronic quoted its president and general manager of brain modulation, Amaza Reitmeier, as saying that the company "will continue to drive therapy innovation with the goal of many more peoples' lives improved with Medtronic DBS therapy."
