Medtech Talk

Kim Rodriguez expected to follow her mom’s career in medicine. But she got bit by the Medtech Bug early and enjoyed a string of sales success at companies of nearly every size including Cocentric, Spectranetics, and Guidant. But three years ago she got recruited to be CEO of a company that was rich in promising technologies as well as business challenges. In just three years, Rodriguez and her team at Acessa pulled out of the tail spin, secured FDA approval and a CPT code and now are building a promising women’s health company. In this episode, she’ll share how aspiring execs should ante up. 

Justin Klein and Kirk Nielsen entered venture capital separately 13 years ago, taking roles at two of the top firms in Medtech. Over that time, the two VCs have led investment in more than a dozen Medtech companies that have either gone public or been acquired. Now, the pair have joined forces to create Vensana Capital, a new investor in Medtech. In this episode, you’ll hear why they decided to venture out on their own and where they’ll be investing $225 million in capital from their first fund.   

Growing up in Canada, Kevin Lobo only knew he wanted to be a senior executive at a global company someday. That overriding objective took him through the consumer good and chemical industries before the financial executive found his first job in Medtech. In this interview conducted at the Medtech Conference in Minneapolis, Lobo reveals that while he first was reluctant to take that Medtech job, he’s now grateful to have found a home. “If you’ve only been in Medtech, you do not understand how lucky you are to be in this industry.” Lobo shares insights on how he built a career that positioned him to lead one of Medtech’s giant. He also explains why under his watch Stryker grew to become a “serial acquirer” of that has spent $14 billion to acquire 55 companies during his tenure as CEO. 

Thank you for your support of the MedtechTalk Podcast. We hope to see you at the Medtech Conference next week. We’ll be posting compelling interviews with Medtech’s leaders immediately after the conference.   

In this week’s podcast, Agnes Berzsenyi, president and CEO of Women’s Health at GE Healthcare, explains how her upbringing in Hungary during a time of political upheaval put her in position to succeed in Medtech. The fall of the Berlin Wall – in addition to presenting a valuable life lesson - gave her the chance to study engineering in the US and secure a job at GE, first in the aviation business. But Berzsenyi’s desire to work for a purpose steered her to healthcare where she has overseen projects in ultrasound and mammography, including the release of the Senographe Pristina and Pristina Dueta, the industry’s first wireless remote that allows women to play an active role in their mammogram. Berzenyi says GE is designing with the patient in mind, creating a more comfortable breast screening procedure. She also talks about how her science-heavy upbringing in Hungary compares to the US where young women may not be steered as strongly toward STEM. She’s working to fix that as well.

Howard Levin and Mark Gelfand, the principals of Coridea, return to the podcast to detail the trials and tribulations of Ardian. Ardian is one of the bigger #medtech #startup stories over the past two decades. In 2011, Medtronic agreed to pay $800 million upfront for this company that pushed the once crazy idea of ablating renal nerves to lower hypertension. Ardian had raised $70 million from a syndicate of blue chip investors after being forged in the Foundry incubator. VCs proudly shared that the earnouts for Ardian would push that price well over $1 billion. This was a HUGE win for Medtech when it desperately needed it. Three years later came the fall. A day before JP Morgan’s Healthcare Meeting in 2014, Medtronic announced early disappointing of SYMPLICITY HTN-3, a third and larger trial of Ardian’s renal denervation.  Medtronic revised the trial, running Spryal HTN on patients who didn’t take any medication for their hypertension – a contrast from the Symplicity trial where patients were taking an average of five medications. In these revised trials, renal denervation is performing much better. The new results exonerated Ardian’s early backers – and perhaps Gelfand and Levin, specifically. This was the team, after all, that combed through medical libraries for clues about hacking the human body to beat back hypertension. The research turned up the discovery that surgeons once would treat extremely unresponsive hypertension by severing nerves near the kidney. The procedure worked, but it was dangerous. Levin and Gelfand saw ablating tissue as a safer path. And, after a lot of trudging up and down the Valley, finally found a willing partner in the team at The Foundry. Early clinical success led to a renal denervation gold rush. Nearly every VC and Strategic investor had a bet in this space.  The 2014 debacle convinced many to close their programs and companies, but now Renal Denervation is back in favor.  How did Howard Levin and Mark Gelfand enjoy the roller coaster ride? In this podcast, we’ll talk about Ardian, TAVR, the challenges facing Medtech VCs and the poor reception many surgeons give new interventional technologies.

Over the past decade, no other Medtech start-up has moved markets as much or as quickly as Ardian, the godfather of the renal denervation surge a decade ago. But the gold rush dried up in 2014 when Medtronic delivered disappointing clinical trial news that left many to declare “Renal Denervation is Dead.” Well, if we may borrow from Monty Python, renal denervation is not dead yet.  In this two-part podcast, we talk with Mark Gelfand and Howard Levin, the principals of Coridea, who developed Ardian’s approach. We'll talk with them about their path to creating Coridea, the state of innovation, and, of course, how the Ardian “Opera” influenced them going forward.

In this episode of the MedtechTalk Podcast, we talk with Shyam Natarajan, PhD, founder and CEO of Avenda Health, a company using imaging, AI and focal lasers to create a better treatment for prostate cancer.  The company’s original co-founders – Natarajin and Dr. Leonard Marks -  started working on the company in earnest five years ago, but recently has begun getting real traction and making big moves. Natarajan talks  about the company’s origins, its unusual fundraising path, and its relatively short path to potential FDA Approval.

You’ll have a hard time finding a more modest man than Dennis Wahr, president and CEO of Nuvaira. But when asked what company he sees as being poised to establish the Interventional Pulmonology industry Wahr says Nuvaira might be the one. Nuvaira’s Targeted Lung Denervation, or TLD, is a non-surgical procedure that interrupts overactive nerve signals and may reduce obstructive airway symptoms, helping you to breathe easier. Could Nuvaira be the company to finally set the cement in the foundation of Interventional Pulmonology? Or will Nuvaira build upon the success of Pulmonx and Inspire, two other respiratory companies making great strides in commercializing new technology. In this podcast, Dennis Wahr discusses Nuvaira’s fund-raising success and what it means for its future (could an IPO be possible?) He also gives tips to other companies presenting at the May 17 Respiratory Innovation Summit in Dallas, another Healthegy-organized event. AttendRIS.com

Anyone who has swapped emails with Scott Huennekens has seen the Go Go Go signature at the bottom. They’re three little words, but they say so much about the special brand of enthusiasm Huennekens brings to leading companies like Digirad, Volcano, and most recently, Verb, the partnership between Google and Johnson & Johnson. In this podcast, Huennekens explains what he learned about maintaining momentum in Medtech. When is grit misplaced? When is hopping on a plane to Europe with no plan in hand a good idea? Huennekens will bring his insights to the Medtech Conference on May 29–30.