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Firm can sell leeches as ‘medical devices’

Washington The government has lent its seal of approval to a marketing an age-old medical device – leeches. The Food and Drug Administration said Monday that Ricarimpex SAS, a French firm, is the first company to request and receive FDA clearance to market the bloodsucking aquatic animals as medical devices. Leeches are already widely used in American hospitals, and companies that raised and sold them here before 1976 were allowed to continue doing so. However, the medical device law passed that year required newcomers to the field to seek approval. The FDA reports that leeches can help heal skin grafts by removing blood pooled under the graft.