14 DAY TRIAL // Medtronic Inc., world's No.1 medical devices manufacturer, is trying to take control of the most profitable economic segment - the $100 billion obesity market - by launching a battery-powered device, which contracts the stomach in order to achieve excess weight loss.
Because of the fact that, besides the classical surgery, the only available medical device used to treat obesity is Lapband, manufactured by Allergan, Medtronic hopes its complex system will soon be ready for launching and it will become a money-making device.
Until now, Medronic's implantable gastric stimulator (IGS) didn't prove its efficiency in 12 months while it was being tested. IGS is implanted under the skin of the abdomen, and its electric wires are placed on the wall of the stomach, in order to deliver small electrical currents which cause contractions.
Enteromedics Inc and the famous Mayo Clinic are also developing an obesity control device - Maestro, meant to slow the digestion process, trying to inhibit the nerve function by placing electrical currents.
As IGS, Maestro is also positioned beneath the skin of the abdomen, generating electrical currents on the stomach, paralyzing it, as well as blocking nerves and the pancreas. Maestro is also used to stop the formation of secretions of digestive enzymes.