Article preview from Start-Up - March 01, 2011
Vein diseases such as deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and chronic venous insufficiency have historically been the province of drug therapies, but they shouldn't be, according to the clinical socieities and medical device companies that are trying to create a groundswell in interventional vein treatments. The field is starting to organize: on the clinical side, the first clinical trials ever to pit devices against drugs for DVT are in progress. At the same time, Covidien has drawn attention to the business opportunities in the field by acquiring three companies with venous devices.
Article preview from Start-Up - March 01, 2011
For the past two decades, arteries have outshone veins as a source of inspiration for clinicians, investors and entrepreneurs. Interventional cardiology now stands as a paradigm of innovation and adoption of dramatic new technologies capable of treating the deadliest of diseases. Veins, meanwhile, while serving an equally integral responsibility within the circulatory system, have been designated as a place where technologies, start-ups, and the capital that has funded them go to die.
This isn't the veins' fault. Clogged arteries can lead to heart attack, death, or limb amputations. Without immediate and effective treatment, patients die or have their lives derailed overnight. Diseases of veins, meanwhile, although no less dangerous, are far more measured and subtle. The clogged veins of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) occasionally cause life-threatening pulmonary embolisms but more often result in swelling and leg pain due to damaged valves, developing over time into a chronic condition that can give rise to non-healing venous ulcers. In short, arterial diseases demand urgency; vein diseases require thoughtful prevention and restoration of comfort. It's the difference between a heart attack and a pain in the leg.
Moreover, the venous device industry is a complicated, fragmented, somewhat confusing space held by a variety of clinicians – interventional radiologists, vascular surgeons, interventional cardiologists, and even wound healing specialists, with a number of different products for distinct applications that just happen to share, at their root, venous disease.
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