Commercial Strategies

Hype around the metaverse has made it a sexy topic, but a recent Accenture report grounds the concept in a sober, yet still exciting, reality. The consulting firm looked at how the metaverse is being applied in the life sciences sector and concluded that while it is early days and the concept remains nebulous, executives would be remiss if they ignored the growing possibilities the metaverse has to offer.

Start-up Esper Bionics has designed a prosthetic hand that can anticipate a user’s actions, changing the game for amputees.

In his recent report on Alcon, BTIG analyst Ryan Zimmerman estimated that its pharmaceutical portfolio could generate close to $900m in fiscal year 2022.

In this new series titled Getting Personal, we talk to new and veteran executives about the trials and tribulations in running a company while exploring their own motivations and passions. In this first edition, we talk to Sidney Collin, co-founder and CEO of De Oro Devices. Collin invented NexStride, a portable device to help overcome freezing of gait in Parkinson’s disease patients, while studying biomedical engineering at the California Polytechnic State University in 2018. 

Johnson & Johnson Vision recently named Peter Menziuso as company group chairman. In a Q&A with Medtech Insight, he his vision for the company and how the company is in a strong position bring vision care to more people.

The company will invest $62.5m for a new manufacturing and supply chain facility in Johns Creek, GA – about 30 miles northeast of Atlanta in Fulton County, according to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.

To further expand its digital surgical platform, Proximie has completed a series C funding round, gathering a formidable roster of investors.

Medtech Insight talked to Michael Bodner, the worldwide president of Johnson & Johnson/Biosense Webster, about the company’s plans to stay number one in the cardiac ablation market. In part 1 of the interview, the medtech veteran talked about the company's plan to compete in the crowded pulsed field ablation field.

The annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference includes presentations from major medtech companies describing their experience in 2021 and expectations for 2022 as they continue to cope with the impact of the Omicron surge. Here are some of the highlights from the presentations on the first day of the meeting.

In this special podcast, Medtech Insight commercial/R&D editor Reed Miller talks to In Vivo executive editor Ashley Yeo about the annual MTI 100 list and the major trends facing the top medtech companies entering the third year of the pandemic.

Medtech’s resilience and flexibility have been clear to see during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this forward-looking view for 2022, CEOs from some of the leading global medtechs share their perspectives on the present and the future, from company and health care system standpoints.

Pharmaceutical marketing and sales shifted toward digital by necessity as the COVID-19 pandemic set in, but advertising experts say offline channels still have an important place in an effective, multi-channel promotional strategy. Defining a brand’s key audience and customer drivers should be the determining factor in channel selection, not chasing the next new media platform.

"We are definitely worried," Tschudin said about some US drug price reform proposals. She also spoke about competitive rebating and new growth opportunities for anchor brands.

A potential decline in mRNA vaccine protection against the Delta variant is raising questions about the need for booster shots in the US. Ocugen Inc. and partner Bharat Biotech hope the changing dynamic of COVID-19 in the US will induce the FDA to reconsider additional clinical trial requirements for Covaxin, an inactivated whole virus vaccine authorized for emergency use in 16 countries. 

Royal Philips’ image-guided therapy business has rebounded, as expected, after the COVID-19 dip, and is now targeting expansion in a number of areas, as business leader Bert van Meurs explains. 

A deeper understanding of rare diseases – how they differ across geographies and ethnicities, or which genes and biomarkers are most useful targets for new treatments – can help to accelerate and de-risk clinical trials. On the commercial front, patient data and insights could mean the difference between a category leader and a failure.