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June 4, 2008

For Immediate Release

Medical Technology Startups: Medtech Startup Activity Diverse, Robust, Showing Industry Strengths

FOOTHILL RANCH, CA —  The formation of new medical technology startups across different clinical and technology areas illustrates the overall strength of the medtech industry. Specific segments demonstrate particularly strong market potential. (Online database from MedMarket Diligence.)

The formation of new companies in any industry can be a true litmus of the overall health of the industry and an indicator of the direction the industry is taking through the relative balance of companies with different areas of focus. We present in our advanced medical technologies blog (http://mediligence.com/blog) a bar graph the number of medtech startup companies categorized by the clinical/technology focus of each company (multiple categories possible; e.g., a company can be “surgical” and have a “minimally invasive” focus).
 

Data is drawn from the MedMarket Diligence “Medtech Startups Database”. Companies are identified as startups based on company registration and categorized by the clinical and/or technology focus of the company. (As a word of explanation, the principal criteria for inclusion of a company in this dataset is the company’s involvement in a market that has medical device involvement, complementary or competitively, and that the company’s founding date can be reliably determined.)

With a central consideration of companies identified and included in the data shown being that companies are either medical device companies or their products (some purely pharmaceutical, for example) are either competiting head-on with device technologies or are complementary to device technologies (e.g., drug-eluting stent hybrids, drug delivery devices, etc.), the most significant areas of company formation are in surgery, cardiovascular therapeutics and orthopedics/musculoskeletal areas of focus. These are, of course, among the most device intensive areas of medicine. See graph (mediligence.com/blog) on the number of cardiovascular therapeutics, ortho/musculoskeletal and surgery companies from 2000-2007.
 

The overall trend is positive for medtech company formations, albeit an apparent peak was reach in 2005/2006, after which formation has slowed somewhat. See graph (blog) of total number of medtech company formations from 2000 to 2008.
 

Note, please, that the 2008 figure understates the number of company formations since, in our experience, we see a minimum of 2-3 months of “stealth” in the medtech companies during which they are successful generally in keeping the company’s formation under wraps. For this reason, we anticipate over the next few months a surge in 2008 companies identified, including in those founded in the January to May time frame.

The MedMarket Diligence database of medtech startup companies is compiled and maintained through active research from multiple public domain and private sources, very often revealing companies previously kept "under the radar".  The database is described, with screenshots, here. For additional details, contact Patrick Driscoll at 949-859-3401 or patrick-at-mediligence-dot-com.