UK MHRA In The Spotlight As Cumberlege Review Puts Medtech Safety At The Top Of Health Agenda

Flo Health was the first femtech unicorn to be valued at over $1bn. But the company faced 49 investment rejections before reaching that status, Anna Klepchukova, the company’s chief medical officer, told the LSX World Congress Europe. THENA Capital’s Esther Reynal de St Michel Richardot talked through the firm’s gender-smart investment strategy.

With medtech businesses typically managing investment cycles on a three- to five-year basis, local regulatory processes and forward costs of market entry must offer an attractive environment in which companies can plan for growth, says McDermott Will and Emery’s partner and head of healthcare and life sciences, Sharon Lamb. Broad-scale improvements to NICE’s evaluation offerings would similarly enhance the UK’s value to innovators.

One year after the UK mooted the Rules-Based Pathway to give medtechs clarity on what can be expected from an evaluation, the devices industry says UK healthtech assessment and adoption processes are still failing to meet the needs of innovators and patients.

“It’s quite likely [consumer wearable manufacturers] are changing the sensitivity and specificity based on consumer feedback, but not for medical reasons,” said Dipak Kotecha, a University of Birmingham professor of cardiology. Often, self-reported performance evidence from manufacturers is “low quality and biased.”