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Everything that Rises Will, Eventually, Converge
If the media is to be believed, combination products are a
newfangled idea. In its coverage of the health care industry, The
Economist has recently focused attention on the struggles of
pharmaceutical and biotech firms to settle their differences and
come together to make the perfect combination device. "The future
may lie in a convergence of these industries with famously clashing
cultures," writes The Economist.
This is old news to Mike Drues, though. As president of Vascular
Sciences, he has been consulting with medical device and
biotechnology companies on combination products for more than 10
years. And he's got some very clear ideas as to what needs to happen
in order to develop more of these devices.
"The challenge," Drues says, "is that we have to get the medical
device community to understand the biotechnology community, and vice
versa." Part of his approach includes educating both sectors about
their respective philosophical differences. While a biotech firm is
more concerned with how the body will respond to different
biologics, a medical device OEM hones in on the engineering of a
product. "The products being made are okay," Drues admits, "but they
aren't perfect. In order to make the products more effective, the
medical device industry has to be open-minded."
Many medical OEMs are starting to make combination products,
which is encouraging to Drues. He predicts the next wave will be
medical technology companies, which will combine biotech, drugs, and
medical devices. "Out of all the companies I've talked to, everyone
has agreed that there is no medical device that can't benefit in
some way from putting a biologic or drug on it," he says.
If you go to MD&M East this year, you'll have a chance to
speak with Drues firsthand. His conference on combination products
will include discussions on designing, testing, and manufacturing
the next generation of medical devices. Ideally, it will give
attendees a better grasp of how biotech firms and medical OEMs can
work together to develop these products.
Corinne Litchfield
Associate Editor,
MPMN
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Read more news features in the May 2006 issue of MPMN.
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