The vibrant community of start-ups, venture capitalists, and physicians at the Ophthalmology Innovation Summit (OIS) that preceded the 2013 American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting in New Orleans in November presented a welcome contrast to the all too typical dreary tales coming from medtech start-ups seeking capital. According to data from Elsevier’s Strategic Transactions, which was presented by the meeting’s co-founder, ophthalmologist and venture capitalist Emmett Cunningham, MD, PhD (of Clarus Ventures), VCs still see great potential in ophthalmic companies, particularly those with medical devices, where $200 million had been invested in 2013 as of October, twice the amount that had been invested for all of the previous year. (See Exhibit 1.)
For the past several years, the most recent innovation in ophthalmic surgery – the femtosecond laser – has dominated ophthalmology...