NVCA Offshoot to Lobby For VCs and Start-Ups

Article preview from Start Up- October, 2010

The National Venture Capital Association has formed the Medical Innovation and Competitiveness (MedIC) Coalition, to push for more recognition for start-ups developing new devices and therapeutics as well as the venture investors that back them.

NVCA Offshoot to Lobby For VCs and Start-Ups

Article preview from Start Up- October, 2010

Frustrated by the lack of attention given to its constituency during the health care reform debate, the National Venture Capital Association has formed the Medical Innovation and Competitiveness (MedIC) Coalition, to push for more recognition for start-ups developing new devices and therapeutics as well as the venture investors that back them.

According to venture capitalists, the need for such a group became clear during discussions with legislators and regulators hammering out the health care bill that showed that there was virtually no consideration of how the changes would impact innovators and investors. More broadly, little consideration was given to how health care reform and specifically, the device excise tax, would impact small businesses. "We want to educate people to the role that venture capital and entrepreneurs play in helping to advance important medical innovations that improve the lives of patients," says MedIC Board Member Joshua Makower, MD, founder of ExploraMed, a medical device incubator based on the West coast and a venture partner with New Enterprise Associates. "We want to make it clear how changes at the FDA and other parts of the government could dramatically weaken what has been one of the strongest industries in the US, the health care industry."

Medical and biopharma start-ups are getting squeezed in the public and private capital markets, where dollars are exceedingly difficult to find. Their difficulties are only exacerbated by the inevitable changes brought on by health care reform as well as the growing uncertainty over regulatory pathways and reimbursement for new treatments.

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