Avinger: Finally, Seeing Through Total Occlusions, But Will Clinical Value Generate Economic Return?

With the medtech industry facing perhaps its most challenging time in terms of start-up development, no one would have begrudged John Simpson, MD, PhD, the luxury of retiring from the device industry in 2007 following the sale of his seventh company, atherectomy developer FoxHollow Technologies Inc., to ev3 Inc. (now part of Covidien Ltd.) for $780 million. [See Deal][See Deal] Certainly after nearly 30 years in medtech, Simpson had earned the right to spend more time with his family – now up to 17 children and grandchildren ( and on the golf course. While he never has considered himself a businessman, preferring to focus on the clinical side of the house and leave the business to others, Simpson has established an unrivaled entrepreneurial record, both in terms of clinical and financial accomplishments. (See Also see "John Simpson: Reluctant Entrepreneur" - In Vivo, 1 April, 2003..) In addition to pioneering coronary angioplasty by developing over-the-wire delivery technology in his first company, Advanced Cardiovascular Systems Inc. (ACS), which helped give rise to interventional cardiology, his companies were responsible for clinical breakthroughs in atherectomy, intravascular ultrasound, and vascular closure, among other areas, and all were acquired, for a total of more than $1.8 billion. (See Exhibit 1.)

Exhibit 1