This article in Forbes is interesting for its stranglehold on the obvious.
Noting that the shares of surgical device maker, Cardica, and gene therapy device maker, Cardium Therapeutics, have fallen of late, making them potential acquisition targets which, of course, virtually all med-tech companies are anyway. In fact, and to give Forbes credit, their point is that the companies’ limited access to cash will impede them from being acquisition targets by larger companies.
The nature of the medical device industry now, and probably for some time to come, is such that small startups or development phase device companies represent a vital source of innovation that make them ripe pickings for the well-established medtech companies. And, clearly, it isn’t even the small or early stage companies that are such targets — no one should need to be reminded of the battle-royale between J&J and Boston Scientific over the acquistion of the not-so-early-stage-or-small Guidant, said battle being “won” by Boston Scientific.
Indeed, I would venture that it is the minority of medical device company entrepreneurs who have the vision, desire and fortitude to make the IPO their ultimate goal. Innovating, developing and gaining regulatory approval for market introduction of devices is a very different different beast than commercializing a device through even a limited geographic scale, let alone worldwide.
