Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati To Host 19th Annual Medical Device Conference

San Francisco CA - The 19th Annual Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Medical Device Conference is being held at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco on June 14 2011, meeting organizers announced recently.

The event will focus on understanding the challenges facing the medtech start-up today, and the strategies that are emerging to respond to these challenges.

The popular 1-day conference will include a series of topical panels presented by industry CEOs, venture capitalists, industry strategists, investment bankers and market analysts.

For Information & Registration: http://www.wsgr.com/news/medicaldevice

A special keynote interview and dinner will be held on Monday evening, June 13, at Sharon Heights Golf & Country Club in Menlo Park. The dinner will feature a conversation with Bill Hawkins, Retiring Chairman and CEO of Medtronic, Inc. In t his talk Hawkins will reflect on his career at Medtronic and offer insights about the future of the medical device industry.

The conference concludes with a Venture Wine Tasting reception. Attendees will sample wines from seven separate California wineries and their sommeliers for the event will be local venture capitalists -- wine with a venture capital twist.

Conference Focus:
Attendees will participate in candid, dynamic, timely and interactive discussions. Practical information will be provided for executives of medical device companies, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, investment bankers and industry consultants.

Who Should Attend:
Medical device industry executives, including officers and directors of device firms, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, investment bankers and industry consultants, will gain valuable insight into today's business landscape.

Panels:

Evolving Venture Strategies
The financial collapse in the fourth quarter of 2008 reset everything in the venture world. Valuations and terms negotiated in earlier rounds no longer served as a signpost for future rounds. Venture Capitalists began to reevaluate their portfolios, deciding which portfolio companies to support. Companies with high burn rates in clinical trials were in a particularly difficult position. But despite the turmoil, deals have been getting done. This panel of prominent venture capitalists will discuss the challenges faced by the venture industry today, the current investment psychology and the evolving investment strategies that are emerging as we return to a more normal environment.

Moderator: Casey McGlynn, Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Speakers:

• Leslie Bottorff, Partner, Onset Ventures
• Michael Liang, Partner, Baird Venture Partners
• Hank Plain, Partner, Morgenthaler Ventures
• Lee Wrubel, General Partner, Foundation Medical Partners

Breakout Session 1
Diagnostics
In vitro diagnostics (IVD) has reemerged as a new sector for venture investment. Scisive consulting has identified over 200 new IVD companies formed over the past 10 years, most of them addressing one of two broad market areas:

• New Biomarkers, many being brought to market by their originators in a novel self-commercialization model
• Rapid Diagnostics, exploiting ever more sophisticated technology for practical point of care testing

This panel will address the driving forces behind proliferation of new IVD companies and technologies, lessons learned so far, and prospects for these companies to emerge as substantial independent entities.

Moderator: Robert Easton, Chairman, Scisive Consulting LP

Speakers:

• Bonnie Anderson, CEO, Veracyte
• Brian Atwood, Managing Director, Versant Ventures
• Jim McDonough, CEO & President, T2 Biosystems, Inc.

IP Strategies
Starting your own business is tough. Knowing how to protect your patentable assets and satisfy the investment community during IP diligence can be even tougher. Join a panel of medtech experts, including an experienced patent attorney, a successful serial entrepreneur and an active investor as they discuss how to build a comprehensive IP strategy for today's medtech business. The panel will discuss real life experiences on how IP can make or break a company and how paying attention to patent issues early in the life of a new venture can pay huge dividends when it comes time to finance and later sell the enterprise.

Moderator: Ji m Heslin, Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Speakers:

• Bob Behl, CEO, Percutaneous Systems Inc.
• William Starling, Managing Director, Synergy Life Science Partners & CEO, Synecor

Raising Funds Internationally
Today companies need to be creative in their fund-raising approaches. Gone are the days when a company can simply go up and down Sand Hill Road to access capital. Last year we saw many later stage medical device companies looking to Europe and Asia for growth capital. Many European funds are interested in companies launching in Europe, while Asian countries use the promise of easy capital to attract medtech businesses to their jurisdiction. This panel of experienced executives, investment bankers, and venture capitalists, will share their recent experiences raising money internationally. Th e discussion will also cover the challenges encountered in dealing with different cultures, expectations, processes and structures.

Moderator: Todd Carpenter, Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Speakers:

• Eitan Konstantino, President & CEO, TriReme Medical Inc.
• Erin McGurk, President & CEO, PneumRx, Inc.
• Robert Stockman, Chairman & CEO, Reva Medical

Breakout Session 2
US Commercialization Strategies
It's been a long journey with the FDA but your product has now received FDA approval. So how should you go about commercializing your product in the United States? Should you hire a large direct sales force and do a major launch? Should you focus on a few key markets and go deep with a small direct team? Should you hire distributors or a specialty pharma team to take on your device? These are very important questions and you need to get it right. Join Mark Speers of Health Advances, two seasoned sales executives and a business development executive from one of the medtech consolidators as we explore that all-important question: How should I commercialize my product in the U.S.?

Moderator: Mark Speers, Partner & Managing Director, Health Advances, LLC

Speakers:

• David Clapper, CEO, Minerva Surgical
• Michael Devine, EVP, Sales & Marketing, Access Closure

Changing the Rules on Physician Payments
In recent years, relations between industry and the clinical community have come under increasing scrutiny, leading to passage of both state and federal legislation to regulate those relations. This panel will explore the policies and procedures companies need to put in place as they move from development, to clinical investigation and commercialization. The discussion will include a review of the dire consequences for failure to adhere to these policies. This panel will provide you with actionable rules on physician consulting arrangements and payments to physicians who use your products in their clinical practice.

Moderator: David Hoffmeister, Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Speakers:

• Leo Cunningham, Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
• Peter Fitzgerald, MD, Practicing Physician, Stanford University
• Allan May, Founder, Life Science Angels, & Managing Partner, Emergent Medical Partners

Lunch & Presentation
Join David Cassak of Windover Information as he interviews Andrew Cleeland, the CEO of Ardian, and several of his key advisors. The discussion will include Ardian's technological approach to treating hypertension, the company's clinical results to date, its current commercialization plans and the process, structure and terms of the recent acquisition by Medtronic.

Moderator: David Cassak, VP Content & Managing Director, Medical Devices, Elsevier Business Intelligence

Speakers:

• Andrew Cleeland, CEO, Ardian
• Hanson Gifford, Managing Member, Foundry, LLC
• Richard Kuntz, Sr. VP/Chief Scientific, Clinical & Regulatory Officer, Medtronic

Breakout Session 3
Medtech in China -- What you need to know
China's exploding growth is creating a new middle class who will one day (and likely not too far in the future) be purchasing more healthcare services than Europe. With the increasingly difficult regulatory and reimbursement environment in the US, the time for medtech companies to look to China for revenue growth is now. This panel will include executives, with experience operating companies, distributing products, and raising and deploying capital in China, as well as active investors interested in bringing Western products to China. Learn how to navigate the complexities and challenges of China in order to successfully access the burgeoning Chinese

medical device market. Moderator: Elton Satusky, Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Speakers:

• Landon G. Lack, President & CEO, China MedConnect
• Irene Tanner, Managing Director, China eCapital
• Chen Yu, Partner, Vivo Ventures

European Commercialization Issues
Most early stage medtech companies continue to be focused on developing their products here in the US. At the same time many of these same US medtech companies are now intent on completing their initial clinical work in Europe, in order to obtain a CE Mark and begin the initial commercialization in Europe. How does this European Commercialization Strategy impact a company's cash flow requirements? What are the hurdles a company faces in launching in Europe? Which jurisdictions should a medtech company pick for the initial product launch? What are the factors influencing a decision to sell direct or work with independent distributors in the EU? Join a panel of experts as we explore the benefits and issues involved in commercializing early in Europe.

Moderator: Marty Waters, Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Speakers:

• Mattias Kyhlstedt, CEO, Synergus
• King Nelson, President & CEO, Uptake Medical
• Mika Nishimura, Founder, BLG Group
• Ferolyn Powell, VP & GM Structural Heart, Abbott Vascular (Evalve)

Are FDA Policies Affecting U.S. Competitiveness?
American patients have to wait on average a full two years longer than their European counterparts for many life-saving and life-enhancing technologies made by U.S. medical device and diagnostics companies because of growing regulatory delays and inefficiencies, according to a study recently released. Join a panel of experts as we explain what went wrong at the FDA, what it is doing to the medtech industry and what is being done to fix it.

Moderator: Mark Leahey, President & CEO, MDMA

Speakers:

• Mark Deem, CTO, Foundry
• David Gollaher, President & CEO, California Healthcare Institute (CHI)
• Josh Makower, CEO & Founder, ExploraMed Development

Winning Strategies For Today's MedTech Company
The cost of company building has increased exponentially in the last two decades. Medtech companies that spent $20M in the 80s would spend $100M or more in the current environment. While costs have risen by at least 5-8x, valuations have not followed that same trajectory. This panel of experts have deep expertise in building med tech companies and delivering enviable returns to investors. The panel will address:

• Common pitfalls of company building and how to avoid them
• Best practices for capital efficiency
• Specific examples of how to dramatically speed company building, while reducing cost

Moderator: Philip Oettinger, Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Speakers:

• Rich Ferrari, Managing Director, DeNovo Ventures
• Joe Heanue, President, Triple Ring
• Mir Imran, Chairman & CEO, Modulus & Managing Director, InCube Ventures
• Jack Lloyd, Founder, Nellcor & Alere Medical

SOURCE: Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati