Device maker Intersect ENT grows with move to Menlo Park

Intersect ENT Inc. will move from Palo Alto to new headquarters in Menlo Park, quadrupling its space as it commercializes its device to treat chronic sinusitis.
The 32,000-square-foot facility at 1555 Adams Drive will house all business and manufacturing operations for Propel, a stent that is placed in the sinus cavities right after sinus surgery. The device keeps the sinuses open and releases corticosteroid over a period of time before dissolving.

Rules seen choking U.S. medical device makers

The most innovative new medical devices are being developed overseas because regulations in the U.S. are too strict, a panel of industry experts said Thursday at a Mountain View Chamber of Commerce “Life Sciences Summit” hosted at Fenwick & West LLP.
The panelists, including vascular surgeon and inventor Dr. Thomas Fogarty of Mountain View’s Fogarty Institute of Innovation, had some harsh words for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, though they also said they’re starting to see a turnaround.
"The FDA has finally woken up and realized what is happening," Fogarty said.
Still, he said he continuously sees companies leave the U.S., and "they're not coming back."

One-on-one with Intersect ENT's Lisa Earnhardt

Lisa Earnhardt has a message for those who suffer from chronic rhinosinusitis: There is a better way.
By definition, “chronic” rhinosinusitis is inflammation of the sinuses that lasts 12 weeks or more. It can be accompanied by a swelled feeling in the face, fatigue, headache and loss of taste, to name a few. (Just thinking about it makes my head hurt.) Of the 30 million people in the United States who suffer from CRS, about a half-million elect to correct it through surgery.
Often, however, even with surgery, the symptoms return.
But Earnhardt thinks her company, Palo Alto’s Intersect ENT Inc., has a better answer. Its Propel stent is placed in the sinus cavities right after sinus surgery, keeping the sinuses open and releasing a corticosteroid over a period of time.
Then Propel disappears — it is absorbed into the body.

Intersect sinus treatment gets FDA approval

Intersect ENT Inc. on Monday announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved its premarket application for a sinusitis treatment.
Palo Alto-based Intersect focuses on treatment for ear, nose and throat patients.
The company's product, Propel, is an implant that offers controlled drug delivery for chronic sinusitis.