Image copyright Johnson and Johnson Image caption The Animas OneTouch Ping pump is sold in the US and Canada

Pharmaceutical firm Johnson & Johnson has warned that one of its insulin pumps for diabetics is at risk of being hacked, causing an overdose.

The firm said the vulnerability concerned its OneTouch Ping pump which is only sold in the US and Canada.

However, it told the BBC there had been no reported attacks and the risk was "extremely low".

"It would require technical expertise, sophisticated equipment and proximity to the pump," it said.

The disclosure was made in a letter to patients on 27 September, the firm said.

The Animas OneTouch Ping pump, which was launched in 2008, enables diabetics to dose themselves with insulin using a Wi-Fi remote control. This removes the hassle of directly accessing the device, which can be worn under the patient's clothes.

Johnson & Johnson said the pump was not connected to the internet or to any external network.

But Jay Radcliffe - a diabetic and researcher with cyber security firm Rapid7 - said he had discovered it could still be hacked from a distance of 25 feet.

He found communications between the pump and its radio frequency remote could be hijacked - in theory allowing a hacker to administer unauthorised injections.

'Low risk'

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) said it had confirmed Mr Radcliffe's findings but that the pump remained "safe and reliable".

It said worried patients could take precautions, such as not using the pump's remote and programming the device to limit its maximum dose.

There are growing concerns over the risk of medical device hacks.

In February, cyber security firm Kaspersky Lab revealed it had hacked into a hospital's IT infrastructure - with its permission - and was able to access an MRI device.

And the US Food & Drug Administration is said to be preparing formal guidance for manufacturers on how to respond to reports of cyber attacks.

The agency has previously urged medical firms to work with cyber security experts to mitigate risks - however it says it knows of no cases where criminals have hacked a device to cause harm. </s> Bayer and Johnson & Johnson have agreed to settle more than 25,000 lawsuits over their blockbuster blood thinner Xarelto for a total of $775 million, court documents on Monday showed.

The amount will be shared equally between the two companies that jointly developed the drug. Bayer and Johnson & Johnson do not admit liability under the agreement.

The settlement will resolve all pending lawsuits over Xarelto, which plaintiffs claimed causes uncontrollable and irreversible bleeding leading to severe injuries and even death among thousands of plaintiffs.

Plaintiffs accused the drugmakers of not warning about the bleeding risks, claiming their injuries could have been prevented had doctors and patients been provided adequate information.

Bayer in a statement on Monday said it continues to believe the claims are without merit. “However, this favorable settlement allows the company to avoid the distraction and significant cost of continued litigation,” the company said.

Johnson & Johnson in a statement said it continued to believe in the safety of Xarelto, but that the settlement was the right thing to do for patients and their doctors.

Xarelto is Bayer’s best-selling drug. It jointly developed Xarelto with Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals unit, which sells the blood clot preventive under a licensing agreement in the United States.

Airbus secured a $35 billion jet deal from China during a state visit by President Xi Jinping to Paris, dealing a fresh blow to Boeing as it grapples with the grounding of its best-selling jet.

The mammoth order consists of 290 A320 narrow-body planes and 10 A350 wide bodies, France-based Airbus said after the transaction was announced in Paris on Monday. The deal’s value is almost double that touted by French President Emmanuel Macron in 2018.

The Airbus coup comes while Boeing’s 737 Max — the chief global rival to the A320 — has been idled following two fatal crashes in five months. The U.S. aircraft manufacturer is also struggling with the fallout from a China-U.S. trade war.

China has become the world’s most important aviation market as the fast growth of its middle class spurs demand for travel.

Hackers targeted "hundreds of thousands" of ASUSTeK computer owners by pushing a backdoor update software tool from the computer maker's servers, cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab said Monday. Kaspersky said the attack, which took place between June and November, is possibly affecting over a million users all over the world.

Viacom has renewed its contract with AT&T, avoiding a blackout of MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central for DirecTV users, the companies said Monday. Viacom needed to resolve the AT&T contract before considering any other strategic moves.

8:30 a.m.: The Commerce Department releases housing starts for February. </s> The U.S. government is urging allied nations to avoid using telecommunications equipment from China’s Huawei Technologies Company, even though some of those countries have already made large purchases of Huawei equipment, according to a report published Friday.

The U.S. has expressed concerns that Chinese military and intelligence units have compromised Huawei products, posing security risks.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that U.S. officials are concerned about host countries using Huawei equipment in close proximity to American military bases and about Chinese tech compromising the security of next-generation 5G wireless networks. The U.S. military has some dedicated equipment for its most sensitive communications, but a great deal of the communications traffic from American installations in foreign countries passes through local telecom networks.

American officials are offering detailed briefings on the security risks posed by Chinese equipment:

The briefings are aimed at dissuading governments and telecom executives from using Huawei network components in both government and commercially operated networks. A core focus of the briefings is Beijing’s ability to force Chinese corporations to comply with government requests from government authorities, a U.S. official said. The talking points also emphasize how wireless and internet networks in a few years could be more susceptible to cyberattacks or espionage, people familiar with the briefings said. Today’s cellular-tower equipment, for instance, is largely isolated from the “core” systems that transfer much of a network’s voice and data traffic. But in the 5G networks telecom carriers are preparing to install, cellular-tower hardware will take over some tasks from the core—and that hardware could potentially be used to disrupt the core via cyberattacks. For that reason, U.S. officials worry that Huawei or ZTE cellular-tower equipment could compromise swaths of a telecom network. Huawei is the world’s No. 2 smartphone maker behind Samsung Electronics Co. It is the global leader for telecom equipment, such as the hardware that goes into cellular towers, internet networks and other infrastructure that enables modern communication. The company has been all but shut out of that market in the U.S. after a 2012 congressional report labeled it a national-security threat. American officials say the company could be compelled by Beijing to use its knowledge of its components to snoop on or disrupt telecommunications networks.

The Journal noted American officials are not alone in these concerns. Australia has already banned Huawei and another Chinese company, ZTE, from participating in its 5G network, while the U.K. is conducting a telecom security review that does not specifically name any companies but may be motivated by concerns about Huawei, whose products are popular in Britain. The WSJ article also mentions a “new wariness” toward Huawei in Germany and the possibility of restrictions on its products in Japan.

Unfortunately for concerned U.S. policymakers, Chinese technology is already well established in many allied countries. Italian telecom executives reportedly told U.S. officials they simply cannot stop using Huawei and ZTE products because the Chinese equipment is inexpensive and flexible. A British telecom executive described Huawei as the “only true 5G supplier right now” to the Journal.

Reuters reported on Friday that Huawei has signed 22 commercial contracts for 5G networks so far and is opening an information security lab in Germany to help defuse security concerns before auctions for 5G network spectrum next year.

A group of senior German officials is mounting a last-ditch effort to ban Chinese companies from the 5G project. The German foreign and interior ministries are said to be especially concerned about Chinese participation after speaking with their counterparts in the United States and Australia.

“There is serious concern. If it were up to me we would do what the Australians are doing,” one German official said, referring to Australia’s ban on Huawei and ZTE. Even the German left, which is generally opposed to freezing entire countries out of German markets, has expressed apprehension about Huawei and pointed to Chinese cybersecurity laws that literally require all Chinese companies to “collaborate in national intelligence work.”

Huawei has consistently denied allegations that it works with Chinese intelligence and issued such a response to the Journal piece on Friday:

No Chinese corporation has a good answer to the simple truth that Chinese law absolutely requires them to work with Beijing’s military and intelligence operations upon demand. Even if it were true that Huawei is not currently injecting backdoors and other security flaws into its products for the benefit of Chinese intelligence, the government could compel it to do so tomorrow and arrest its executives instantly if they hesitated to comply.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that stocks in Chinese tech companies are dropping as a result of the U.S. campaign against them, and indeed because of the Journal’s own reporting on that campaign. Conversely, the shares of European competitors to Huawei and ZTE such as Ericsson and Nokia are rising as the looming possibility of bans or caps on Chinese products creates market opportunities for them. The Chinese government has denounced U.S. warnings about the security of Huawei and ZTE products as protectionist schemes to suppress Chinese competition and create market share for American and European companies. </s> The Petya ransomware that plagued companies in Europe on Tuesday might have stemmed from corrupted updates of an accountancy software. Reports said that the Ukrainian tax-filing software, M.E.Doc, might have been the source of infection, but the company has denied these allegations.

According to BBC, a number of security experts claim to have logs revealing M.E.Doc as the source. British malware expert Marcus Hutchins, who had been credited with ending the recent WannaCry ransomware outbreak, said that the software’s automatic update system was compromised, and instead of running updates for the software, it was downloading and running malware.

Malware infiltrates networks via email attachments aiming to fool users into clicking on it by mistake. The Petya ransomware, once it has taken over a computer, will encrypt important documents and files and then demands a ransom in Bitcoins; in this case, $300. If the ransom is not paid, the user will risk losing all their files.

The cyberattack led to disruptions among infected companies in 64 countries, including banks in Ukraine, Russian oil giant Rosneft, and the British advertising company, WPP.

Danish shipping giant Maersk was also one of the companies that took a hit in yesterday’s cyberattack. According to BBC, the company was unable to process new orders and was expecting delays on consignments.

Even a Cadbury factory in Tasmania was affected and was forced to stop production as computer systems went down, according to John Short, the Australian Manufacturing and Workers Union state secretary.

While M.E.Doc denied claims that the ransomware sprung from its update, Microsoft published a blog post analyzing how the infection took hold of Windows machines. It pointed the blame at the accounting software.

“Active infections of the ransomware initially started from the legitimate M.E.Doc update process,” the blog entry reveals.

Meanwhile, according to The Guardian, the Petya ransomware looks like just another cybercriminal taking advantage of cyberweapons leaked online. Security experts deem the payment mechanism of the attack to be too amateurish since the ransom note includes the same Bitcoin payment address for every victim. The malware also asks the victim to communicate via a single email address, which was already suspended by the email provider. This means that there is no way to communicate with the attacker to request the decryption key.

According to security researcher Grugq, the recent cyberattack has only a superficial resemblance to Petya, which was a money-making criminal enterprise.

“This is definitely not designed to make money. This is designed to spread fast and cause damage, with a plausibly deniable cover of ‘ransomware,'” Grugq wrote.

The origin of the attack remains unknown, although according to Wired, Ukrainian cybersecurity firms and government agencies pin the attacks on political operatives seeking to disrupt Ukrainian institutions as it targets infrastructure, including an electricity supplier, the state telecom, the central bank, and an airport. </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The ransomware involved has been defeated before, reports the BBC's Chris Foxx

NHS services across England and Scotland have been hit by a large-scale cyber-attack that has disrupted hospital and GP appointments.

The prime minister said the incident was part of an untargeted wider attack affecting organisations globally.

Some hospitals and GPs have been unable to access patient data, after their computers were locked by a ransomware program demanding a payment worth £230.

But there is no evidence patient data has been compromised, NHS Digital said.

The BBC understands about 40 NHS organisations and some GP practices have been hit. The NHS in Wales and Northern Ireland has not been affected.

There is no indication of who is behind the attack yet, but the hackers demanded their payment in the virtual currency Bitcoin, which is harder to trace.

Prime Minister Theresa May said: "This is not targeted at the NHS, it's an international attack and a number of countries and organisations have been affected."

Ambulances diverted

Mrs May added that the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) was "working closely" with the NHS "to ensure that they support the organisations concerned and that they protect patient safety".

Ambulances have been diverted from hospitals in some areas and there has been disruption at some GP surgeries as a result of the attack.

NHS England said patients in an emergency should go to A&E or access emergency services as they normally would.

Dr Anne Rainsberry, NHS incident director, added: "More widely, we ask people to use the NHS wisely while we deal with this major incident, which is still ongoing."

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Angry doctors, disappointed patients: Reactions to the cyber-attack on the NHS

A massive ransomware campaign appears to have attacked a number of organisations around the world, with reports of infections in more than 70 countries.

Telefonica, the Spanish telecoms company which owns mobile network O2, said it had detected a "cybersecurity incident" but that clients and services had not been affected.

Screenshots of a program that locks computers and demands a payment in Bitcoin have been shared online by those affected.

NHS Digital said the attack was believed to have been carried out by the malware variant Wanna Decryptor.

"Our focus is on supporting organisations to manage the incident swiftly and decisively, but we will continue to communicate with NHS colleagues and will share more information as it becomes available," it said.

Why has the NHS been hit so hard?

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Technology explained: what is ransomware?

There could be a lot of reasons why the NHS was hit so hard by this attack.

The most likely one is because it is a huge organisation supported by a massive IT infrastructure.

It also has lots of partners and suppliers that connect to its core network.

Complexity is the enemy of security and it is a fair bet that some bits of that network, especially those operated by suppliers, are not as well maintained as they should be.

This could mean that patches that would have thwarted WannaCry were not applied.

So, as soon as the worm got in, it could run rampant.

Dr Chris Mimnagh, who works at a medical centre in Liverpool, said the attack had made its job impossible.

"Our entire patient record is accessed through the computer - blood results, history, medicines.

"Most of our prescribing is done electronically... it's sent direct to the pharmacy and... all that is not able to be accessed when we lose the clinical system."

'Power of the state'

Dr Emma Fardon, a GP in Dundee, said she had returned from house visits to find a message on the surgery's computers asking for money.

"We can't access any patient records. Everything is fully computerised," she said.

"We have no idea what drugs people are on or the allergies they have. We can't access the appointments system."

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption NHS chief Saffron Cordery tells PM that hospitals are cancelling their operations

Dr Afzal Ashraf, an expert on cyber-security who has previously worked as an adviser to the government, told the BBC it was likely that the malware was spreading when NHS services shared documents and information.

But he also said he thought it was unlikely the attackers had deliberately targeted the NHS.

He added: "I think they probably attacked a small company assuming they would get a small amount of money but it's got into the NHS system and now they have the full power of the state against them - because obviously the government cannot afford for this sort of thing to happen and be successful."

Get news from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning </s> In Singapore's worst cyber attack, hackers have stolen the personal particulars of 1.5 million patients, including the outpatient prescriptions of 160,000 people, including that of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and a few ministers.

In what is believed to be a state-sponsored attack, the hackers infiltrated the computers of SingHealth, Singapore's largest group of healthcare institutions with four hospitals, five national specialty centres and eight polyclinics.

At a multi-ministry press conference on Friday (July 20), authorities said PM Lee's information was "specifically and repeatedly targeted".

The 1.5 million patients had visited SingHealth's specialist outpatient clinics and polyclinics from May 1, 2015 to July 4, 2018.

Their non-medical personal data that was illegally accessed and copied included their names, IC numbers, addresses, gender, race and dates of birth.

No record was tampered with and no other patient records such as diagnosis, test results and doctors' notes were breached. There was no evidence of a similar breach in the other public healthcare IT systems.

"This was a deliberate, targeted and well-planned cyberattack. It was not the work of casual hackers or criminal gangs," said a joint statement.

In the light of the attack, all of Singapore's Smart Nation plans including the National Electronic Health Record (NEHR) project - which enables the sharing of patients' treatment and medical data among hospitals here - have been put on hold.

Minister in Charge of Cyber Security S. Iswaran will convene a Committee of Inquiry (COI) to conduct an independent external review of the incident. Retired district judge Richard Magnus will chair the committee.

Initial investigations showed that one SingHealth front-end workstation was infected with malware through which the hackers gained access to the data base. The data theft happened between June 27, 2018 and July 4, 2018.

SingHealth has imposed a temporary Internet surfing separation on all of its 28,000 staff's work computers. Other public healthcare institutions will do the same.

Unusual activity was first detected on July 4 on one of SingHealth's IT databases, Security measures including the blocking of dubious connections and changing of passwords were taken to thwart the hackers. On July 10, the Health Ministry, SingHealth and the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore were informed after forensic investigations confirmed that it was a cyber attack. A police report was made on July 12.

No further data was stolen since July 4.

All patient records in SingHealth's IT system remain intact and there has been no disruption of healthcare services.

SingHealth will be contacting all patients who visited its specialist outpatient clinics and polyclinics from May 1, 2015 to July 4, 2018 to notify them if their data has been stolen. An SMS message will be sent to all patients over the next five days. Patients can also access the Health Buddy mobile app and SingHealth website to check if they are affected by the breach.

The Ministry of Health has directed a thorough review of the public healthcare system to improve cyber security and all public and private healthcare institutions have been advised to take cyber security precautions. </s> related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery.

2 related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery.

A total of 1.5 million SingHealth patients’ non-medical personal data were stolen, while 160,000 of those had their dispensed medicines’ records taken too, according to MCI and MOH.

SINGAPORE: The "most serious breach of personal data” in Singapore’s history took place last month, with 1.5 million SingHealth patients’ records accessed and copied while 160,000 of those had their outpatient dispensed medicines’ records taken, according to the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Communications and Information.

Among those affected was Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, with the attackers “specifically and repeatedly targeting” his personal particulars and information of his outpatient dispensed medicines, the ministries said in a joint release on Friday (Jul 20).

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Several other ministers were also affected, including Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.

The personal data taken from the 1.5 million patients include their names, NRIC numbers, address, gender, race and date of birth, the release said, adding that the hackers did not amend or delete the records.



Patients’ medical records, including past diagnosis, doctors’ notes and health scans, were not affected.

“We have not found evidence of a similar breach in the other public healthcare IT systems,” they said.

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"UNPRECEDENTED" ATTACK

At a news conference on Friday, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong apologised to patients affected. Calling the attack "unprecedented", Mr Gan said: "I'm deeply sorry that this has happened ... We must learn from this and emerge stronger and more resilient from this incident."

Also at the conference was Communications and Information Minister S Iswaran who vowed to get to the bottom of the breach.

"I want to assure everyone that the Government takes with utmost seriousness its responsibility of ensuring the security of public sector IT systems and databases," he said.

Investigations by the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) and the Integrated Health Information System (IHiS) confirmed that the attack was a “deliberate, targeted and well-planned cyberattack” and was not the work of casual hackers or criminal gangs.

Channel NewsAsia understands that authorities have established who might be behind such an attack. There are only a few countries in the world who have the level of sophistication shown during the cyberattack campaign.

"I apologise. We are not able to reveal more because of operational security reasons," CSA chief executive David Koh said at the news conference when asked which country might have been involved.

None of the stolen data has surfaced in the public domain, including that of the prime minister.

"The attackers deliberately, repeatedly and specifically targeted his information and they were able to access and copy the dispensed medication record of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong," Mr Koh said.

"It's perhaps best not to speculate what the attacker had in mind," he added in response to a question on why Mr Lee's data was targeted.

In a Facebook post, Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong revealed that his non-medical personal particulars with SingHealth had also been stolen.

"Cyber theft is a key risk when going digital. But we cannot stop the digital advance and must strive to build the most secure Smart Nation," he added.

SOPHISTICATED ATTACK

According to MCI and MOH, IHiS database administrators detected unusual activity on one of SingHealth’s IT databases on Jul 4, and acted immediately to stop it. They carried on their investigations, while putting in place additional security measures, the release said.

From Jul 4 to Jul 9, they continued to monitor the network traffic closely before ascertaining it was a cyberattack and alerted superiors. On Jul 10, MOH, SingHealth and CSA were informed and forensic investigations were carried out.

It was found that data was taken out from Jun 27 to Jul 4 this year, and the patient records accessed and copied were from those who visited SingHealth’s specialist outpatient clinics and polyclinics from May 1, 2015, to Jul 4 this year.

CSA ascertained the cyberattackers first accessed the network after breaching a front-end workstation, and managed to get privileged access to the database over time while also showing sophistication in cleaning up their digital footprints when doing so.

SingHealth has since lodged a police report on Jul 12, and police investigations are ongoing. These investigations are separate from those looking into the cyberattack, Channel NewsAsia understands.

Since kicking the cyberattacker out of the system on Jul 4, further attacks were observed but no further data were illegally stolen, the ministries said, adding there was no disruption of healthcare services during the period of the cyberattack and patient care has not been compromised.

STEPPING UP SECURITY

The ministries also said further measures have been introduced to tighten SingHealth’s IT security, including imposing Internet separation policies.

Additional controls on workstations and servers have also been introduced, as well as the resetting of user and systems accounts and installation of more system monitoring controls.

Furthermore, SingHealth will be progressively contacting all patients who visited its clinics and polyclinics during the abovementioned time period to notify them if their data has been stolen.

All patients, whether or not they are affected, will receive an SMS notification over the next five days. They can also proactively access the Health Buddy mobile app or SingHealth website to check if they have been affected, the release said.

MOH has also directed IHiS to conduct a thorough review of the public healthcare system here, with support from third-party experts. Areas of review include cybersecurity policies, threat management processes, IT system controls and organisational and staff capabilities.

Advisories have also been sent to all healthcare institutions, public and private, on the cybersecurity precautions and measures to be taken, the release added.

COI TO BE CONVENED

Separately, the Minister-in-charge of Cybersecurity S Iswaran on Friday will convene a Committee of Inquiry, to be headed by Mr Richard Magnus, a retired Chief District Judge and member of the Public Service Commission.

More details of its members and terms of reference, as well as when the COI will be held, will be revealed at a later date, MCI said.

Addressing reporters at a news conference, Mr Iswaran said: "Because this incident occurred in the SingHealth IT system and is within the healthcare cluster, that has to be the natural focal point of the COI’s work."

However, to be meaningful it also has to draw lessons or policy recommendations that can be applied to the public sector and potentially the private sector, he added.

Mr Iswaran has also directed CSA to work closely with all 11 keys sectors - energy, water, banking and finance, healthcare, transport, Infocomm, media, security and emergency services and Government - to enhance the security of their critical information infrastructure systems.

The Smart Nation and Digital Government Group has also completed a scan of all government systems and found no evidence of compromise, he said.

There will be a pause in the introduction of new ICT systems in the interim, until their respective reviews have been completed and security posture established, it added.

"We cannot return to the days of paper and pencil but we will take a pause of our various IT-related projects ... to review and strengthen our cybersecurity measures if necessary, before proceeding," Mr Gan said, adding that this includes the National Electronic Health Record project.

There were no further details on which ICT projects will be paused, but these could possibly include SingPass Mobile, Channel NewsAsia understands.

"We will do our utmost to secure our IT systems. However, unfortunately, we cannot completely eliminate the risk of another cybersecurity attack," Mr Iswaran said at the conference. This is due to attackers constantly developing new techniques and probing for fresh weaknesses in IT systems.

"This is an ongoing battle ... however, we must not allow this incident, or any others like it, to derail our plans for a Smart Nation," he added. </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Healthcare company Abbott Laboratories <ABT.N> has won U.S. antitrust approval for its proposed purchase of medical device maker St. Jude Medical Inc <STJ.N>, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Tuesday.

Abbott has agreed to divest two medical device businesses to settle FTC charges that the $25 billion acquisition of St. Jude would likely be anticompetitive, the FTC said in a statement.

Abbott has said the deal would help it compete against larger rivals Medtronic Plc <MDT.N> and Boston Scientific Corp <BSX.N> as hospitals look to cut the number of their suppliers.

The FTC said the parties are required to sell businesses for two devices used in cardiovascular treatments - St. Jude’s vascular closure device and Abbott's steerable sheath - to Japan-based Terumo Corp <4543.T>.

Representatives for Abbott and St. Jude were not immediately available for comment.

Abbott said in October that the companies would sell some of their medical device business to Terumo for about $1.12 billion as a step toward completing the deal.

European antitrust enforcers approved the merger in November if the companies divest the two devices used in cardiovascular treatments.

St. Jude has been under pressure after short-seller Muddy Waters and research firm MedSec Holdings said in August that its heart devices were riddled with defects that make them vulnerable to cyber hacks. St. Jude has denied the allegations and sued both firms.

In October, St. Jude said it had told doctors to stop implants of its Nanostim leadless cardiac pacemaker, citing reports of problems with electronic data reporting caused by a battery malfunction that could put patients at risk.

There have been no reports that any patient injuries resulted from the malfunction, St. Jude has said.

Abbott has been divesting businesses to focus on its cardiovascular devices and diagnostics business, selling its medical optics division to Johnson & Johnson <JNJ.N> for $4.3 billion earlier this year. It spun off its pharmaceuticals business as AbbVie Inc <ABBV.N> in 2013.

Abbott is trying to pull out of a second deal, the $5.8 billion acquisition of diagnostic test maker Alere Inc <ALR.N>, which had failed to file financial statements and disclosed probes into billing and foreign sales practices.

The two companies are suing each other. </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Healthcare company Abbott Laboratories (ABT.N) has won U.S. antitrust approval for its proposed $25 billion acquisition of medical device maker St. Jude Medical Inc STJ.N, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Tuesday.

Abbott agreed to divest two medical devices used in cardiovascular procedures to resolve FTC concerns the acquisition would stifle competition, the commission said in a statement.

“We continue to work to obtain final regulatory approvals and anticipate closing before the end of the year or shortly thereafter,” Abbott spokeswoman Elissa Maurer said in an email.

The company will sell St. Jude’s vascular closure device and Abbott’s steerable sheath to Japan-based Terumo Corp (4543.T). In October, Abbott said the companies would sell some of their medical device businesses to Terumo for about $1.12 billion as a step toward completing the deal.

Vascular closure devices are used to seal small holes made in an artery to prevent bleeding following a coronary angiogram, a special x-ray to see if coronary arteries are blocked or narrowed. Steerable sheaths are used to help place catheters into the heart.

European antitrust enforcers agreed to the deal in November provided the companies divest the two devices. Representatives for Abbott and St. Jude were not immediately available for comment.

Abbott has said the deal will help it compete against larger rivals Medtronic Plc (MDT.N) and Boston Scientific Corp (BSX.N) as hospitals look to cut the number of their suppliers.

St. Jude has been under pressure after short-seller Muddy Waters and research firm MedSec Holdings said in August that its heart devices were riddled with defects that make them vulnerable to cyber hacks. St. Jude has denied the allegations and sued both firms.

In October, St. Jude said it had told doctors to stop implants of its Nanostim leadless cardiac pacemaker, citing reports of problems with electronic data reporting caused by a battery malfunction that could put patients at risk.

There have been no reports that any patient injuries resulted from the malfunction, St. Jude has said.

Traders gather at the booth that trades Abbott Laboratories on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, December 10, 2012. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Abbott has been divesting businesses to focus on its cardiovascular devices and diagnostics business, selling its medical optics division to Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) for $4.3 billion earlier this year. It spun off its pharmaceuticals business as AbbVie Inc (ABBV.N) in 2013.

Abbott is trying to pull out of a second deal, the $5.8 billion acquisition of diagnostic test maker Alere Inc ALR.N, which had failed to file financial statements and disclosed probes into billing and foreign sales practices.

The two companies are suing each other.
Pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson warns that one of its Wi-Fi enabled insulin pumps for diabetics (OneTouch Ping pump) is at risk of being hacked, causing an overdose.