Medical device start-ups woo investors
State trade group conference will put them together today
By Todd Wallack, Globe Staff | November 1, 2007
In an annual ritual, two dozen local medical device companies plan to make quick pitches to investors today at an industry conference in Boston. The MedTech Investors Conference, sponsored by a state trade organization, will feature mostly early stage companies - promoting everything from cutting-edge medical scanners to gels that heal wounds. "It gives them an opportunity to lay out their business plans and financing needs," said Thomas J. Sommer, president of the Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council, which represents the state's medical device companies. One publicly traded company, Abiomed Inc. of Danvers, is scheduled to make a presentation. But most of the firms are smaller privately held companies, including: NeuroLogica Corp. The Danvers company is presenting a portable CT scanner, called the CereTom. NeuroLogica says its customers include dozens of medical centers, including Children's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.Tepha Inc. The Lexington company is trying to use biotechnology and advances in material science to develop medical devices from a new class of biomaterials. The company is hoping the new materials will allow it to develop devices that are stronger or more flexible than traditional products. In June, Tepha said it raised $10.7 million in venture financing led by the Vertical Group.SteriCoat Corp. The one-year-old Cambridge company, one of a number of firms cofounded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Robert Langer, is attempting to develop new microbe-resistant coatings for medical devices. SteriCoat, which won MIT's 100KEntrepreneurship Competition last year, is run by former Polaris Ventures Partners associate David Lucchino, the nephew of Red Sox president Larry Lucchino.Sommer said the trade group typically receives 35 to 40 requests from companies interested in speaking and whittles the list to 25. Each company is allotted 10 minutes to present.In addition, Daniel O'Connell, the state's secretary of housing and economic development, is slated to speak at the conference about Governor Deval Patrick's $1 billion life sciences proposal. The governor's office has been actively trying to rally support for the bill, complaining the legislation has been languishing on Beacon Hill. Legislators say the bill is complex and deserves further scrutiny.The conference, in its ninth year, is scheduled for 7:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. today at the Park Plaza Hotel. The state's medical device industry, which includes several hundred companies, employs roughly 20,000 people.Todd Wallack can be reached at twallack@globe.com.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
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