There are some obvious trends and dynamics in medtech:
- Cost is now a central driver of much development – either as an advantage to be marketed (e.g., reduced recovery time) or as an upper limiter of features offered.
- Changes in the cost of doing business: demands for post-market surveillance, change in approval process (510K), physician payments, implementation of healthcare reform's medical device tax, etc.
- The "aging" healthcare patient. Growth in the active, over 65 (and therefore cost intensive) population to consume a big(ger) share of healthcare dollars.
- Investment (constrained, but on an upswing in 2010). The credit crunch that has pinched off investment has been particularly painful for startup and early stage companies, while the Medtronics, Boston Scientifics and others of their ilk (i.e., size) have had deep enough pockets to bear less impact on their R&D efforts.
But there are also a number of less obvious trends and dynamics which, in play either as a result of (or even in spite of) the above trends, may well have greater impact.
- Change in definition of what constitutes a medical “device”. This changes manufacturing, regulatory approval.
- Continued broadening of the spectrum of competition. The true “competition” for medtech is being define more by the patient’s needs than the technology type. For manufacturers, this forces them to see a much bigger picture of the competitive landscape.
- Materials technologies fundamentally changing product performance (biocompatibility, bioabsorption, drug delivery, MRI-compatibility, integration with electronics like RFID, “pillcam”, etc.).
What is frequently lost in the discussions of "change" is the self-preserving drive of those on its receiving end to adapt to or, more often, capitalize on that change. Those with the most at risk during the process of change are by definition those who have the biggest incentive to respond proactively to that change and, if they are less able to do so, will stridently decry its unfairness. Meanwhile, savvy entrepreneurs see the change as opportunity. This point should be in the "obvious" column, but as I listen to rhetoric about healthcare reform and the economic and other challenges that characterize today's medtech markets, the point is clearly not always so obvious.
MedMarket Diligence focuses on medical devices, cell therapies, tissue engineering, biomaterials, and biopharmaceuticals serving the needs of patients and clinicians in cardiology, surgery, wound management, neurology and many others. See Reports.
