Originally Published MX November/December 2004

COVER STORY

The conventional wisdom says that it's nearly impossible to develop a successful self-standing medical device company in today's medical technology marketplace. Obstacles such as lengthy product development timetables, investor impatience, slow clinical adoption, difficulty in obtaining reimbursement from third-party payers, and product distribution challenges can weigh heavily on the minds of company executives hoping to achieve the impossible.

But having the support of committed and patient investors can help—a lot.

Ryan Drant

For Proxima Therapeutics (Alpharetta, GA), one such group of supporters has been the investment team of New Enterprise Associates (NEA; Reston, VA), a leading venture capital firm with focused interests in the information technology and healthcare sectors. NEA was an early investor in Proxima and helped to shape the development of the company's products by urging company CEO Timothy J. Patrick to pursue applications of the technology for treatment of breast cancer.