DeviceTalks Weekly Archives - Medical Design Sourcing

What could medtech lose from the Silicon Valley Bank shutdown?

A host of medtech companies dodged the loss of billions of dollars in Silicon Valley Bank deposits — but the space still faces challenges.

That is one of the big takeaways from the latest DeviceTalks Weekly podcast.

The FDIC shuttered Silicon Valley Bank on March 10 to stave off a bank run amid depositor concerns over how the bank had managed risk around rising interest rates. With $209.0 billion in total assets and about $175.4 billion in total deposits, it was the second-largest bank collapse in U.S. history.

Silicon Valley Bank was a huge name in the tech and startup world since its founding in the 1990s. SVB’s website said half of all U.S. VC-backed tech and life science companies used the Santa Clara, California–based bank. Especially vulnerable were startups and other young companies that parked their funds at the bank — and found themselves asking how much they’d get back above the $250,000 FDIC deposit insurance limit.

By Sunday, March 12,…

DeviceTalks Weekly: What’s your top story of 2022?

DeviceTalks Weekly is inviting listeners to record their personal picks for top medtech story of 2022. It’s easy!

Step 1 — Make sure you’re on a device with a good microphone. Phones work great! Step 2 — Click here. This will open a new window.

Step 3 — Open up by giving us you name, company or other affiliation. Please include your email just in case we have a question. Step 4 — Take one minute to record your top Newsmaker and why. If you trip up start over. No problem. Step 5 — Listen to next week’s DeviceTalks Weekly!

We’d really love to hear from our DeviceTalks community about the big stories that have impacted their lives!

DeviceTalks Weekly and MassDevice have covered so much important news over the past year: the massive Philips respiratory devices recall, J&J’s Abiomed acquisition, a potential MDR deadline extension, a hot surgical robotics space, and much more. But what are we missing?

This is y…

MedTech 100 roundup: Turnaround for the industry?

A turgid month for the medtech industry might be drifting into the past after the past week indicated a slight turnaround as summer nears.

MassDevice‘s MedTech 100 Index — which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies — finished the week at 107.74 points, marking a 1.4% rise from the 106.22-point mark set one week prior.

Having endured its largest slide of 2021 in recent weeks, the index is already demonstrating signs of a rebound after April brought the industry’s all-time best performance.

Despite the setbacks that have plagued the industry over the past month or so, medtech’s performance continues to reflect a rebound from the struggles brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, it has registered a 16.7% rise from the pre-pandemic high of 92.32 (set on Feb. 19, 2020), plus a 73.4% increase from the mid-pandemic low of 62.13 (March 23, 2020).

The overall markets were on the opposite end of the spectrum over the p…

DTW Podcast: Getting to the heart of Boston Scientific’s peripheral business; How Hologic sees trials changing

In this week’s episode of the DeviceTalks Weekly Podcast, Boston Scientific peripheral business EVP Jeff Mirviss explains why the specialty’s name doesn’t really reflect the importance of arteries, veins and other critical “highways” in the body.

Mirviss explains where the peripheral business is headed, and why Boston Scientific is uniquely positioned to address the business.

He also shares lessons learned over his 20-plus years at Boston Scientific including the challenges presented by the Guidant acquisition and the necessary spirit infused by CEO Michael Mahoney.

Also on this week’s podcast, Eric Kolodziej, corporate VP and global head quality and regulatory affairs at Hologic, about how clinical trial management is changing. What role will real-world evidence play going forward, and how will Hologic and others follow up on the record number of EUA’s issued over the past year by the FDA.

Kolodziej will be part of a panel of regulato…

DTW Podcast: Herrera on how military lessons led to Medtech career; Ulmer ready to redo landmark FDA survey

Derek Herrera and Kwame Ulmer are featured on this week’s DeviceTalks Weekly Podcast.

In this week’s podcast, Derek Herrera explains how a serious battle injury he received while leading Marines in Afghanistan led him to build a career in medtech.

Herrera has founded two companies – Spinal Singularity and Habit Camera – to create devices that can improve and save the lives of people who need help the most. Herrera also explains how his military training is serving him so well in medtech and how the medical device industry would benefit from including more veterans in its workforce.

We’ll also hear from Kwame Ulmer, principal at Ulmer Ventures and a lecturer at UCLA Anderson’s School of Management, about an effort his helping to lead to update the landmark study compiled by Josh Makower in 2010. The study blasted a regulatory process that it called “unpredictable, inefficient and expensive.”

Its finding led to introspection and changes, according to…

5 reasons Medtronic’s CEO is optimistic about the future

Geoff Martha, CEO of Medtronic

Nearly a year after Geoff Martha took over the corner office at Medtronic, the world’s largest medical device company is transforming.

In a recent interview with our DeviceTalks Weekly podcast, Martha detailed Medtronic‘s major reorganization, its shift in corporate culture and more.

Martha was also highly pleased about Medtronic’s recent Q3 earnings results. Here are five reasons why he’s optimistic about the company’s future.

Next>>

DeviceTalks by MassDevice · Geoff Martha updates Medtronic’s new course; AJAX CEO Duke Rohlen is funding innovation differently

Medtronic is changing a lot: Here’s what you need to know

CEO Geoff Martha says Medtronic‘s ongoing corporate restructuring will position the company to compete better with medical device rivals, freeing the front-line forces from earlier entanglements. But the change will also create new opportunities for Medtronic employees at the company and elsewhere.

In a far-ranging interview with the DeviceTalks Weekly podcast, Martha reviewed the company’s strong third quarter-results and spoke of the programs giving him the most optimism. (Here are five things that make Martha especially optimistic about Medtronic’s future.)

He also updated listeners on the reorganization plan that created 20 semi-autonomous operating units.

“We took out over two layers of the company, which helps with our agility,” Martha said. “The dust is settling. But this operational model is much broader than structural things. This is like going from mainframe to PC, but we still have to rewrite the software.&…

5 reasons Medtronic’s CEO is optimistic about the future

Medtronic CEO Geoff Martha

Nearly a year after Geoff Martha took over the corner office at Medtronic, the world’s largest medical device company is transforming.

In a recent interview with our DeviceTalks Weekly podcast, Martha detailed Medtronic‘s major reorganization, its shift in corporate culture and more.

Martha was also highly pleased about Medtronic’s recent Q3 earnings results. Here are five reasons why he’s optimistic about the company’s future.

Next>>

DeviceTalks by MassDevice · Geoff Martha updates Medtronic’s new course; AJAX CEO Duke Rohlen is funding innovation differently

Medtronic is changing a lot: Here’s what you need to know

CEO Geoff Martha says Medtronic‘s ongoing corporate restructuring will position the company to compete better with medical device rivals, freeing the front-line forces from earlier entanglements. But the change will also create new opportunities for Medtronic employees at the company and elsewhere.

In a far-ranging interview with the DeviceTalks Weekly podcast, Martha reviewed the company’s strong third quarter-results and spoke of the programs giving him the most optimism. (Here are five things that make Martha especially optimistic about Medtronic’s future.)

He also updated listeners on the reorganization plan that created 20 semi-autonomous operating units.

“We took out over two layers of the company, which helps with our agility,” Martha said. “The dust is settling. But this operational model is much broader than structural things. This is like going from mainframe to PC, but we still have to rewrite the software.&…

DTW Podcast: KCK’s Long says deals getting done during COVID era

Karen Long, managing director at KCK Group

In this week’s DeviceTalks Weekly Podcast, Karen Long, managing director at KCK Group, says startups looking for funding have an opportunity to catch the eye and ear of investors.

KCK, an active medtech investor, has been involved in two sizable investments this summer including Aerin Medical and NeuroPace. Both were portfolio companies, but Long says KCK is in the market for new deals.

“We’re looking at companies and where we have the ability to take these ZOOM calls and take pitches that would have normally required a lot of travel and a lot of time to plan,” Long said in this week’s episode.” We can do it in a half hour, 45 minutes and at least we have the introduction and can see if it makes sense to continue.”

Medtech executives looking for more insight on the fundraising market can register for today’s DeviceTalks Tuesday discussion where …

DTW Podcast: KCK’s Long says deals getting done during COVID era

Karen Long, managing director at KCK Group

In this week’s DeviceTalks Weekly Podcast, Karen Long, managing director at KCK Group, says startups looking for funding have an opportunity to catch the eye and ear of investors.

KCK, an active medtech investor, has been involved in two sizable investments this summer including Aerin Medical and NeuroPace. Both were portfolio companies, but Long says KCK is in the market for new deals.

“We’re looking at companies and where we have the ability to take these ZOOM calls and take pitches that would have normally required a lot of travel and a lot of time to plan,” Long said in this week’s episode.” We can do it in a half hour, 45 minutes and at least we have the introduction and can see if it makes sense to continue.”

Medtech executives looking for more insight on the fundraising market can register for today’s DeviceTalks Tuesday discussion where …

DTW Podcast: Can Fractyl Labs and Cala Health go where only drugs have gone before?

DeviceTalks Weekly, powered by MassDevice

In this week’s episode of the DeviceTalks Weekly podcast, co-hosts Tom Salemi, editorial director of DeviceTalks, and Chris Newmarker, executive editor of life sciences, review this week’s Top 5 medtech stories, aka “Newmarker’s Newsmakers,” with news coming from CureVac, Avail Medsystems, ClearMask, Thermo Fisher and Bayer.

We also hear from two executives from Fractyl Laboratories — CEO Dr. Harith Rajagopalan and CFO Lisa Davidson — about its recent $55 million Series E round of financing and the strides they’re making in developing a device to treat diabetes.

In a second interview, bioelectronic device company Cala Health CEO Renee Ryan gives us an update on the Cala Trio’s clinical success in treating essential tremors and how the start-up is working through COVID-19.

Finally, Chris and Tom hint at an upcoming event for the DTW communit…