Medtech Insight's News We're Watching highlights some recent business and R&D developments you may have missed. This week, Biosense Webster’s Varipulse PFA platform earned a CE mark; Biosense Webster also announced the start the pivotal IDE study of its Laminar left atrial appendage elimination system; the FDA approved Boston Scientific's Agent paclitaxel-coated balloon and cleared Medtronic's OsteoCool 2.0 bone ablation system; three papers in Science Robotics describe magnetically controlled vascular robots that could go places wires and catheters cannot.

Medtech Insight caught up with Sean Salmon, the president of Medtronic's cardiovascular business, to talk about the long-awaited FDA approval of the Symplicity Spyral renal denervation system, recent approvals of the PulseSelect pulsed field ablation system and extravascular ICD, and the company's plans for transcatheter aortic valve replacement.

The AF Symposium in Boston Featured presentations of two trials of Johnson & Johnson/Biosense Webster’s Varipulse pulsed field ablation system and more safety data from the ADVENT trial of Boston Scientific’s Farapulse PFA.

The FDA approved Boston Scientific’s Farapulse pulsed field ablation system, as expected, at the end of January, and the company believes regulators in China and Japan will approve it later this year. Brad Sutton, Boston Scientific’s chief medical officer for atrial fibrillation solutions, told Medtech Insight why PFA will soon dominate the atrial fibrillation ablation market and how his company plans to be a leader in PFA.