The medtech industry, long overshadowed by the pharmaceutical industry, is expected to grow at a much faster rate than pharma, according to a new report from EvaluatePharma. EvaluateMedTech World Preview 2018 forecasts growth of 4.4 percent a year to $440 billion by 2018. We spoke to Anthony Raeside, head of research for EvaluatePharma, about the new report, what’s driving growth for the medtech industry, and why Big Pharma may become a big acquirers of some of these companies.

Whole genome scanning tested for clinical decision making.

A first-of-its-kind, large scale trial of whole genome cancer testing to personalize treatment for patients with metastatic breast cancer finds in 20 percent of the cases uncovered rare and unexpected genomic activity and argues it’s time to make this approach a clinical standard.

With the right data at the right time, personalized treatments become possible, says Soon-Shiong. 

Billionaire healthcare maverick Patrick Soon-Shiong has made public a formerly stealth clinical genomics platform he says will reduce the necessary time for tumor genome analysis from 8 weeks to just 47 seconds per patient.

Medical Center will invest $100 million to improve patient outcomes, reduce costs.

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has announced a new five-year, $100 million enterprise healthcare analytics initiative that will foster personalized medicine. Along with technology partners Oracle, IBM, Informatica, and dbMotion, UPMC intends to create a data warehouse that brings together clinical, financial, administrative, genomic, and other information that today is difficult to integrate and analyze.

The weekly round-up of failed trials, missed targets, and other business mishaps. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said that a generic version of the popular antidepressant Wellbutrin XL 300 mg, made by Impax Laboratories and marketed by Teva Pharmaceuticals as Budeprion XL 300 mg, is not therapeutically equivalent to the brand name drug. 

Insurance giant hopes to improve prevention and treatment through modeling and analytics. 

The Big Data analytics company GNS Healthcare said it will work with the health insurer Aetna to use its modeling and analytics to better treat and prevent heart disease, stroke, and diabetes related to people with or at risk of developing metabolic syndrome. The agreement follows Aetna’s launch last month of its Aetna Innovation Labs, which seeks to leverage data and best practices to improve patient outcomes or demonstrate measurable value to customers and providers.

As need for innovative antibiotics grow, challenges remain to be met. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is creating an internal task force to help it develop and revise guidance on antibacterial drug development and address the growing crisis of antibiotic resistance.

Advisors to President Barack Obama have issued a new report calling for doubling the output of innovative, new medicines for patients with important unmet medical needs. The group also recommends actions to improve drug efficacy and safety through collaboration between industry, academia, and government.

Medtronic has agreed to pay approximately $816 million in cash to acquire orthopedic device maker China Kanghui Holdings. The deal is the U.S. medical device giant’s largest overseas acquisition to date and comes just over a month since a Medtronic executive revealed that it was considering a Chinese deal.

Vivus hopes to gain early traction with doctors. 

Vivus has initiated the commercial launch of its weight-loss pill Qsymia, beating rival Arena Pharmaceuticals for the distinction of marketing the first new prescription weight loss drug in more than decade.