The business model for medical device startups is said to be in jeopardy, and it’s the topic du jour at conferences everywhere, as entrepreneurs are complaining bitterly about arbitrary FDA regulators and tight-fisted insurers. Much of this industry’s spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship is migrating overseas, it is often said.
Yesterday, I heard all that and more when I stopped by a conference that featured a couple of big names—Beckie Robertson, a veteran med device investor and managing director with Menlo Park, CA-based Versant Ventures, and Rob Michiels, the former president of CoreValve, the Irvine, CA-based maker of an aortic valve device that was acquired by Medtronic for $700 million two years ago. These two talked about the pros and cons of commercializing new medical technologies overseas first, at a conference in Bothell, WA organized by the Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Evolve or Die: Versant’s Beckie Robertson on Four Ways Med Device Companies Can Survive | Xconomy
Author: Luke Timmerman
