Start-Up interviews the inventors behind Ardian, the object of one of the highest priced venture capital-backed medical device acquisitions, and between them, five other medical device companies. The team uniquely brings a perspective of applied physiology, and the integration of systems, to the goal of device innovation. In CHF Solutions, they've addressed heart failure with a device from nephrology, in Cardiac Conetps, heart failure by way of a neurological approach to sleep apnea, and in Ardian, hypertension, by studying the functioning of the kidney.

These days, medtech investors need to be much more selective about how they spend their capital. In pursuit of steady streams of early-stage opportunities with a high likelihood of success, VCs are establishing closer ties with entprepreneurs and executives they feel can do it again.

In Vivo analyzed recent public and private device financings to determine the comparative strengths and weaknesses of the various types of device financings, and further broke down the investments by therapeutic categories to examine what areas are hot and which ones are not. We found that the device industry has rebounded from a dismal public market and is showing strength among both public and private investors, resulting in a sector well-positioned for continued growth.

A Reprint--see the article of the same name in In Vivo, May 2008.