The Vertical Group sticks closely to medical device investments, because that's the industry its partners know best. Although it has a narrow industry focus, its flexibility allows it to thrive in good times and bad. It runs an evergreen fund, of which general partners and its two special limited partners own 50%. And it has a great deal of investment flexibility as well; it can invest in all stages of a company, from seed stage to the aftermarket, where it can hold both long and short positions.

Several relatively new companies are making inroads into a new market for bypass assurance with devices that help cardiovascular surgeons intra-operatively assess the patency of each anastomosis. Cardiovascular surgeons historically have been resistant to adjunctive surgical innovations designed to help them do their jobs better. These companies, however, are betting that the difficulty posed by new beating heart coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) procedures will motivate surgeons to slowly but steadily adopt their minimally invasive tools.

Just three years after its founding, Chinese cell therapy developer IASO Bio already has two assets in clinical development and the Nanjing firm has recently attracted $60m in financing. In an exclusive interview, its R&D head told Scrip that speed and partnerships are propelling Chinese developers on a trajectory to quickly catch up with the west in the emerging cell-therapy arena.