The Risks of Surgical Over-Reaching
Executive Summary
The announcement this month that HeartPort Inc. will be acquired by Ethicon Inc., a Johnson & Johnson operating company, turns a kind of final page on what was, to anyone living through the crazy world of medical device start-ups over the past several years, one of the industry's most interesting stories. In the end, what has become clear, is that HeartPort simply made the wrong bet. The cardiac surgery revolution, if you can call it that, has been a shift from CPB to off-pump procedures; about minimally invasive techniques per se, surgeons are still very ambivalent.You may also be interested in...
The Vertical Group
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.
Cover Your Graft
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.
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Two CBD marketers warned by FDA in a recent crackdown are targeted in class action complaints alleging they made unsubstantiated health claims and mislabeled ‘illegal drug’ products as supplements. Complaints are a wake-up call to CBD wellness industry to ensure claims are substantiated, as the class action bar is on the prowl following the agency’s 15 warning letter blast in November.
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