SAN FRANCISCO – Less than three years ago, Medtronic (Minneapolis) jolted the med-tech world with the $800 million cash (plus potential earnouts of another $500 million) acquisition of privately-owned, venture capital-funded Ardian (Mountain View, California) (Medical Device Daily, Dec. 1, 2010). Generally unheralded, Ardian had pioneered a catheter-based procedure called renal artery denervation (RDN) for the treatment of resistant hypertension (RH).
BOSTON — The Canaccord Genuity (Vancouver, British Columbia) 33rd Annual Growth Conference once again featured a diverse group of public medical device companies. These participants represented a broad range of medical device markets, including cardiovascular, diabetes, orthopedic, oncology, ophthalmology, aesthetics and interventional medicine.
SAN FRANCISCO — The 21st annual Medical Device Conference, sponsored by the law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (WSG&R; Palo Alto, California), is the "granddaddy" of venture capital (VC) oriented gatherings, and draws from a variety of groups, including VCs, medical device entrepreneurs, patent attorneys, accounting firms and other service providers to the medical device industry.
SAN FRANCISCO — The second annual Ophthalmology Innovation Summit (OIS) was held in conjunction with the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ASCRS; Reston, Virginia). International Business Forum (Massapequa, New York) organized the meeting.
SAN FRANCISCO — The acquisition of privately-owned, venture capital-backed Ardian (Mountain View, California) in January 2011 by Medtronic (MDT; Minneapolis) for $800 million in cash upfront, plus commercial milestones equal to the annual revenue growth through the end of Medtronic's fiscal year 2015 sent shockwaves through the cardiology and medical device communities (Medical Device Daily, Dec. 1, 2010).
SAN FRANCISCO — The 62nd Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology (ACC; Bethesda, Maryland) kicked off here early on Saturday morning with a new and surprising turn in a series of unusual events that have surrounded the Prospective Randomized Evaluation of the Watchman LAA Closure Device in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation Versus Long Term Warfarin Therapy (PREVAIL) trial.
