Clinicas Guide to Early-Stage Medtech Companies - Market Research Reports

Summary:

Investment in the medtech space is once again gathering momentum, in spite of a downward slump witnessed in the early half of this decade.

In 2005, the amount of venture capital pumped into the US medical device industry increased every quarter to total more than $2.1bn, a 25% increase over 2004. 2006 looks set to top this figure, with total investment in the first three quarters already nearing the $2bn mark.

Even in Europe, a region that has traditionally been more conservative than the US when it comes to technology investments, some Euros3.5bn has been invested in the non-biotech medical sector in 2005. The UK is significantly ahead of its European counterparts in supporting innovation, making up for over a quarter of total medtech venture capital investment made between 2004 and 2005. Sweden and Switzerland follow behind, accounting for 19% and 15% of the venture capital pie, respectively.

More notably, the money that is going into the medtech sector is being spread more evenly across different financing stages. In 2005, medtech start-ups in the US received $65m in seed funding from venture capitalists (VCs), over double the amount recorded in 2004. The same situation is occurring across the Atlantic, where the proportion of venture capital raise in first financing round increased steadily between 2002 and 2004.

So what makes medical technology a particularly attractive investment? A more stable regulatory path and a shorter route to market compared to pharmaceuticals and biotechnology are just a couple of factors that are often trumpeted by VCs. Additionally, the growing strength of the medtech IPO market - bolstered by the successful exits of venture-backed medtech companies seen in recent years - coupled with a consistently high level of M&A activity have further stoked investors’ interest in medical devices.

Driving it all is a ceaseless flow of innovation emerging from the R&D labs and taken along the route to commercialisation by entrepreneurs.

Clinica’s Guide to Early-stage Medtech Companies brings to you a selection of start-ups and fast-growing companies from the US and Europe that are developing next-generation technologies for improving patient healthcare.

Many of these technologies provide minimally invasive alternatives to current treatment options. For example, CoreValve’s Revalving system offers a percutaneous approach to heart valve replacement - a significantly less traumatic procedure to traditional open-heart surgery - while TranS1’s AxiaLIF technology enables orthopaedic surgeons to perform lumbar fusion percutaneously via a one-inch incision.

The diagnostic devices profiled in this guide incorporate advanced technologies that not only improve the accuracy of the diagnosis but produce results as quickly and as fuss-free as possible. One example is Vivacta’s proprietary piezofilm sensor technology that enables the company to develop easy-to use, point-of-care tests which produce results with the same sensitivity as those achieved in lab analysis but within a fraction of the time. Another is Cambridge Devices’ fibre optic tissue identification probe (TIP) designed to eliminate repeat breast biopsy procedures by helping doctors excise the required samples more efficiently first time round.

This guide also looks at companies addressing other areas, such as ophthalmic and bariatric devices, sectors which are growing in significance as the population ages and diseases such as obesity and diabetes reach epidemic proportions.