Article preview from Medtech Insight - April, 2012
There are signs that the field of deep brain stimulation (DBS) has gained a certain momentum of late: three start-ups raised venture rounds in 2011 and there have been two acquisitions in the space within the past year. DBS enables the giants in cardiac rhythm management – Medtronic, St. Jude Medical, and Boston Scientific –to leverage existing technology platforms from CRM to address a new area once served primarily by drugs, and start-ups can help them by validating new disease targets and increasing procedural accuracy and efficiency. The space is appealing because with a single platform, companies can address several diseases with large populations, such as depression and Alzheimer’s disease. But the opportunities remain far from certain with this highly complex technology.
Article preview from Medtech Insight - April, 2012
Medtronic Inc.’s Activa implanted deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy is a technology platform that has created a $400 million business for the company in the treatment of movement disorders – Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, and dystonia. For a decade and a half, since its first European approval in 1993, Medtronic has enjoyed dominance in this product segment; but its hegemony is about to come under attack with the entry of St. Jude Medical Inc., which, having launched its therapy for Parkinson’s disease in Europe in 2009, is now headed for the US, and Boston Scientific Corp., which is in early clinical trials with its own DBS platform for Parkinson’s disease.
These cardiac rhythm management (CRM) device leaders see in deep brain stimulation new growth markets that make use of their core development and manufacturing skill sets built over the years in CRM, since, as do their pacemakers and defibrillators, deep brain implants make use of leads, pulse generators, and batteries. And this couldn’t happen at a better time, given the lack of significant growth in the CRM space as a whole.
Continued...
To read this article in its entirety, purchase now as a PDF and receive it immediately via email. Or get it FREE when you subscribe to Medtech Insight Newsletter.
About Medtech Insight
Medtech Insight newsletter provides insights into the technology and market developments (devices, instrumentation, biomaterials, gene therapy, tissue engineering, etc.) impacting a wide range of surgical and non-surgical clinical practices.
Comments