MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Medtech titan Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) took a risk when it bet nearly $1 billion on renal denervation pioneer Ardian years before its flagship device was slated to hit the U.S. market, and the recent foofaraw over the company’s missed clinical trial may have a cooling effect on other device companies, analysts warned.
Rival renal denervation makers Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) and St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) have both slowed their clinical trials while still defending the technology and Covidien (NYSE:COV) plans to wind down its program and ditch renal denervation entirely, but the implications may go even deeper.
If big medtech players such as Medtronic decide to pull back on their risky bets an aggressive buys, it could put a damper on the whole market, analysts told the Star Tribune.
"When the big companies get a lot more cautious and back off and want to see more data, it just extends the time-lines and requires more capital," venture capitalist Peter McNerney told the paper. "It just makes it tougher."
There is at least 1 physician still defending renal denervation as a potential treatment for patients with drug-resistant hypertension. U.K. cardiologist Dr. Darrel Francis, who originally attempted to curb what he correctly predicted as unrealistic expectations about Medtronic’s Symplicity HTN-3 renal denervation trial, is now trying to stem the backlash.
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