Medical gear start-ups make pitch in Boston

Entrepreneurs show off devices to possible backers

By Robert Weisman, Globe Staff  |  October 3, 2009

They came to Columbia Point yesterday bearing bronchoscopes, cardiac pressure monitors, and promises of medical advances that can translate into profitable investments.

More than two dozen medical gear start-ups shared their business plans and made 10-minute presentations known as “elevator pitches’’ to potential backers at the 11th annual MedTech Investors Conference at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.

“Boston is very cutting edge in this field,’’ said Maria Shepherd, founder of Data Decision Group, a Belmont market research firm specializing in medical equipment. “But funding is an issue for these companies. There’s not a lot of money to be invested right now.’’

Entrepreneurs paraded to the podium at the UMass-Boston Campus Center ballroom to plead their cases to an audience of about 300 venture capitalists, angel investors, and other business professionals. The event was sponsored by the Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council, a trade group better known as MassMedic.

“We’re looking at submucosal tumors for potential applications,’’ said Ken Spector, chief executive of Kingston, N.H., start-up Aponos Medical, pointing to a slide of his company’s surgical tools removing a tumor from a pig’s colon in a recent clinical test. “This is a platform technology that we will continue to expand.’’

Christine Bunt, founder and chief operating officer of Taris Biomedical in Lexington, explained her company’s new drug-delivery device to treat painful bladder syndrome and interstitial cystitis.

“One of the challenges the company had to overcome was retention,’’ Bunt said. “It’s difficult to keep devices in the bladder.’’

Paul Chipperton, chief executive of Profound Medical Inc., said he is seeking $6.5 million to fund development of a device that would use real-time imaging to treat prostate cancer. “In one sweep, we can treat the whole prostate in under 30 minutes,’’ he said.

Chipperton, whose company is based in Toronto, said he came to Boston because it’s a hub for the medical device industry - and for investors that fund industry start-ups. “This is where the money is,’’ Chipperton said. “Last week was biotechnology week in Canada, and the number of investors there wouldn’t have filled half of this room.’’

For some presenters, the event was a coming-out party at which they introduced their technologies and companies to the medical-device community for the first time. For others, it was an opportunity to forge connections with like-minded entrepreneurs.

“This meeting is really about networking,’’ said Doug Adams, founder and president of SendSor Corp. in Medway, which is developing an implantable ophthalmic device to treat glaucoma. “If you can’t network in this business, you can’t do the job.’’

Adams, a serial entrepreneur, said he has started “six or seven companies’’ in his career and sold them to biopharmaceutical firms. “Here’s the pattern: license a patent, build a prototype, finish a clinical trial, and sell the technology,’’ he said matter-of-factly.

Investors at the conference said they were hunting for entrepreneurs who can move products forward and provide “proof of concept,’’ a strong indication devices will be safe and effective in patients, before they will underwrite costly clinical trials.

“People don’t want to invest in basic science,’’ said Leon Sandler, executive director of the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. “They want to invest in engineering moving toward product.’’

Start-ups also need to have a strong sense of the application, or end use, of the medical technology they are developing, said Rich Anders, founder of the angel investing group MA2 Angels.

“Assessing the connection between the technology and what you can do with it is extremely important,’’ Anders said.

Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com.