Despite Tough Market, Device Industry Stays Strong

By June, the industry had already raised $1.7 billion, putting 2008 on pace for a similar record level year. According to Richard Ramko, a partner at Ernst & Young in Boston, 20% of venture capital dollars go into start up companies, so good ideas are getting funded too--the money and the need is there, he told MD&DI at AdvaMed 2008.The revenue of publicly traded, nonconglomerate companies also increased 6.4% to $111 billion in 2007. When including revenue from the medtech divisions of conglomerates (J&J, GE Healthcare, etc), revenue was more than $180 billion.Some other points: John Babitt, a senior manager at Ernst & Young in New York City, is seeing larger traditional biotechnology companies migrating into the device market, because there's a shorter time to market than in the drug industry. In addition, he said that larger billion-dollar deals such as the private equity buyouts of Biomet and Bausch & Lomb (2007) will be a lot harder to come by in these economic times.The report also assesses initial public offerings and their performance, and mergers and acquisitions. Ernst & Youngs' Pulse of the Industry is available for download here.