Medical Devices Today

GSK's Early Link-Up with Abbott for an Immunotherapy Companion Diagnostic

Article perview reprinted from IN VIVO - July 2009

GSK's first immunotherapy is still 4-5 years away, but it is already commissioning a companion diagnostic for it. By striking a deal with Abbott for a commercial screening test this early, the pharma may be laying the groundwork to address any regulatory concerns around using the test to enrich its clinical trials populations, which could allow for lower numbers of patients to be enrolled in order to prove efficacy. Read more...

MAKO Surgical: Navigating Robotics in Orthopedics

Article perview reprinted from IN VIVO - June 2009

All but dead a half a dozen years ago, MAKO Surgical is alive and well with an innovative technology platform that both embraces robotics and looks past it. Key to MAKO's strategy: a focus on unicompartmental knee procedures that are extremely difficult to do manually but, company officials hope, are significantly enabled by its robotic arm platform. If company officials are right, MAKO's robotics system could help explode the unicompartmental segment of the knee market without cannibalizing the total knee replacement segment. This year's AAOS meeting was a kind of coming out party for MAKO, whose major challenge now is convincing surgeons that robotics is more than just an intriguing gadget-it's a critical part of the surgical armamentarium. Read more...

Meet Medical Device Development's Dynamic Duo

Fred Khosravi & Amar Sawhney: Dynamic Device Development Duo

Article perview reprinted from IN VIVO - June 2009

Located on opposite coasts and with complementary skill sets, Fred Khosravi, founder of EndoTex, teamed up with Amar Sawhney, founder of Confluent Surgical, to form Incept, which has become a powerful device company creation engine. Using a unique formula that launches new companies building on previous successes, Incept has compiled an enviable record, starting nine companies in 11 years with three exits and no failures. Read more...

Intuitive Surgical Secures New Technologies

Article preview from IN VIVO -  June, 2009 

The economic meltdown that drove many publicly traded share prices into the ground promised to spark a shopping spree for strategic investors looking to score inexpensive assets. The deals largely haven't materialized, but Intuitive Surgical., with more than $800 million in cash reserves and investments, is certainly beginning to nibble. Over the past six months, Intuitive has signed three technology-sharing agreements and bought the assets of a fourth in pursuit of new technologies to help feed future products to sell along side-or potentially inside-its da Vinci surgical systems. Read on...

What Happens After the Device IPO?

Article preview from Start-Up - June, 2009

Investors love to remind everyone that IPOs are financing events, not exiting events. using the mantra to put off Judgment Day for their investments. So how have device companies fared after the recent spate of IPOs. Read more...

Stroke Devices: Facing Challenges Head On

Article preview from Medtech Insight - June, 2009 

The International Stroke Conference, held in San Diego in February 2009, presented several device-based therapies and approaches that could offer improved outcomes for patients that suffer an acute ischemic stroke. The technologies discussed included mechanical thrombectomy devices, laser treatments, and combined therapy using ultrasound, microspheres, and thrombolytic drugs. Read on...

Interview with Fred Khosravi

Article preview reprinted from IN VIVO -  June, 2009 

In Vivo interviews device entrepreneur Fred Khosravi about his secrets for success in medical device company creation. Khosravi was part of the ACS organization that eventually became Guidant, where he was on the leading edge of the coronary stent revolution. That experience provided Khosravi with a broad background in interventional cardiology devices that was useful in starting his first company, carotid stent company EndoTex Interventional Systems (which was acquired by Boston Scientific) and several other successful companies. Read more...

Xenia's Public-Private Blend Fosters Early-Stage Medtech

Article preview reprinted from Start-Up - June, 2009

Israel's Xenia Venture Capital is an early-stage technology incubator with an unusual model for getting medical technologies out of the nest and on the wing. Read more...

TransEnterix: Managing Revolutions in Surgery

Article preview reprinted from IN VIVO -  May, 2009 

Minimally invasive surgery, performed through a number of ports to create access and enable visualization, manipulation, and dissection, promised to revolutionize surgical techniques two decades ago, but ultimately fell short of changing the way surgeons perform the majority of surgical cases. Now, the next generation in minimally invasive surgery sees single-port surgeries and natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgeries (NOTES) gaining momentum. TransEnterix aims to operate in both cases, with a novel approach that not only allows surgeons greater dexterity in performing complex procedures, but also enables them to do surgical cases through a single access port, using the body's umbilicus. Read more...

Market in Focus: Surgical Sealants and Glues

Article preview reprinted Medtech Insight - May, 2009 

Over the past few decades, the wound closure market has seen the introduction of a number of new technologies, including a variety of surgical adhesives and glues for both external and internal use to hold tissues together and/or reinforce surgical suture or staple lines. These products address a market that encompasses over 73 million surgical wounds annually in the US alone and generated sales of over $367 million in the US last year, according to Medtech Insight's recently published report US Markets for Current and Emerging Wound Closure Technologies. The US market for surgical sealants and glues is growing at an annual rate of about 3.8% and is expected to reach about $443 million in sales by 2013. Read more...