printAs discussed over these pixelated pages, the effects of the Obama healthscare are percolating down. Now the EETimes reports that, “As many as three-quarters of venture capitalists are exiting the health care field as the total pool of venture capital decreases and regulatory hurdles increase.”
Medical electronics companies face increasing hurdles getting funding and regulatory approval to bring new technologies to market, according to executives at a medical device event here.
“We’re in a bit of a perfect storm right now with some of the worst things I’ve seen in 30 years,” said Eamonn Hobbs, chief executive of DelCath Systems and chairman of the Medical Device Manufacturers Association (MDMA), host of the event.
As many as three-quarters of venture capitalists are exiting the health care field as the total pool of venture capital decreases and regulatory hurdles increase, said Kevin Wasserstein, managing director of Versant Ventures (Menlo Park, Calif.) which focuses on health care.
“Even entrepreneurs have started to retreat from pursing big ideas [in health care], and we risk as an industry evolving to incrementalism and safer projects,” said Wasserstein.
Some of the about 100 medical devices executives gathered here complained about what they said was an increasingly conservative and slow-moving U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The chief executive of one medical device company said his product is approved for sale in Europe, but is still waiting on an FDA OK to begin clinical trials.
UPDATED: (Sept. 21): Big Biz Was Once Small, Dah! What do you know, Bernie Marcus, Home Depot co-founder, was once the owner of a small business. How can that be? (Yeah, Obama … and the Republicans are idiots).
Yes, big business was once small. Through the democratic vote of the consumer, a small concern grows and grows to become a big, invariably, bad business. (Irony alert.)
Democracy practiced in the free market is the only democracy worth a dime. Let’s destroy the only honest democracy we have: the free market.
On my first week back in the government, I needed to ship classified information by overnight mail and was told overnighting required a memo written and logged in and signed by 6 supervisory personnel before we could spend $12. The GREAT NEWS is that the government saved the $12 and used up 7 man-days (mostly mine) instead!
So imagine you work at the FDA – you do not get into trouble by stalling approval and sticking to the rules, you only get into trouble by approving something that might be unsafe (even if it is unsafe to 0.001% of Canadian rats!) or by not following the proper bureaucratic rules. I cannot think of anyone who ever got in trouble for being too slow but there are examples of people who tried to bypass the idiotic processes.
As for the pre-stiffs (patients) – with few exceptions like the gays who got the FDA to speed up some approvals – they can drop dead because they don’t count. The companies who could save lives (and make EVIL PROFITS!!!) are not forcing patients to use their products or medicines but government exists for the sake of government and to hell with the sick and the profiteers.
It’s obvious that Myron knows the government game well. In business transactions in the real world there are two parties. The seller and the customer. Most of the time the customer is the upper half of the equation. With government it’s just the oppposite. The customer,us, is required to do business at the seller’s, government’s, convienience. We all know how that works.
“Democracy practiced in the free market is the only democracy worth a dime.”
What a shame it is that a good chunk of ordinary people do not realize this until it is too late.
Jeff Riggenbach is right in the clip below. Many, if not most, people desire a managed system where markets are manipulated to their own personal benefit. Sad, but I think it is true.
http://mises.org/media/5373
Years ago when I was a mere lad getting my BSEE I had to take this really boring class called engineering administration. There was one figure in our text book that really caught my eye. It was a historical plot of rate of return on research and development dollars. The plot was quite impressive in showing how R&D $$ paid off. I just wonder what that plot looks like now. It would be interesting to see the impact of the increasing government meddling in the affairs of private companies.
I can relate to Myron as I’m a work for a government contractor. I can’t begin to describe the rapid pace at which MDA produces Brownian motion. This is not my first experience with MDA. To quote Sean Connery in the movie League of Exceptional Gentlemen “I’m waiting to be impressed”. If I could only imitate the phrase the way I hear it in my mind!
(I hope I got the movie title correct.)