Symetis: Well-Positioned Next-Generation TAVI Player

Article preview from IN VIVO - April, 2012

Now among the most promising of an emerging group of second-generation transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) companies, Symetis didn’t start out that way. It began as a cell therapy company, but its initial technology failed. On the verge of running out of money, CEO Jacques Essinger, PhD, engineered a change of direction that ultimately turned Symetis into a TAVI company with the kinds of advantages that may provide it with a competitive advantage.

Symetis: Well-Positioned Next-Generation TAVI Player

Article preview from IN VIVO - April, 2012

After an initial product failure that left the company on the brink of collapse, Symetis has reinvented itself through a fortuitous combination of bad experience and good luck to become perhaps the most promising second-generation transcatheter aortic valve company, with technology designed to pick up where the pioneering companies left off.

One of the immutable rules of device company development is that success takes many paths. No matter the clinical space a company starts out in, it is bound to encounter unexpected obstacles, including the possibility of having to redirect efforts to apply its technology to a different clinical area altogether. That, in a nutshell, is the story of Lausanne, Switzerland-based Symetis SA.

Now among the most promising of an emerging group of second-generation transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) companies, Symetis started as a cell therapy company. However, its initial technology failed, and with the company on the verge of running out of money, CEO Jacques Essinger, PhD, and board members Philippe Pouletty, MD, from Truffle Capital, and Jean-Philippe Tripet from Aravis Ventures engineered a rapid change of direction that led to the company’s successful turnaround, enabled by a fortunate combination of bad experience and serendipity.

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