Interview with Arnaud Marie, Global Vice President, General Manager, Pre-Fillable Syringes Platform of BD Medical, Pharmaceutical Systems and MedFIT 2017 Steering Committee member
What important challenges and evolutions do you see the medtech industry facing in the next five years?
The medtech industry is facing a complex and fluid environment:
1) Increasing demand – due to an ageing population, the prevalence of chronic diseases and better healthcare access in emerging markets
2) Advanced technology offerings
3) An evolving care model towards value-based medicine focused on patients and population health
4) Tightening regulations.
The opportunity for the medtech industry is to leverage this dynamic environment to bring impactful innovations.
How important would you say innovation partnerships are for the evolution of the medtech sector?
In this dynamic environment, being rapid and agile is crucial. As no company can boast all the competencies necessary to leverage these mega-trends, the ability to successfully bring together different partners with complementary skills and experiences is a key differentiator. It enables the development and commercialization to the market of more innovative solutions at lower risk and faster.
How difficult is it to set up partnerships and what is required to overcome the challenges involved?
It is a challenge. Building trust, defining clear rules of engagement and agreeing on how the value created will be shared, are key aspects for a successful partnership. That’s why any initiative to network and build bridges between multi-disciplinary entities is valuable.
What advice would you give to early-stage startups pursuing VC?
My advice would be to focus on two points: 1) Be very crisp in qualifying and quantifying the pain points and unmet needs being addressed and 2) Build credibility of the management team and of the proposed business plan.
MedFIT’s objective is to facilitate the exchange of skills and knowledge to develop business and research collaborations between medical technologies players to advance innovation. What do you expect from this event?
I really expect this event to be a springboard to accelerate these partnerships. It should be a forum to sharing ideas, buildings networks, driving conversations and exchanging ideas and knowledge between the various actors in the industry.
In your opinion, what three words best describe MedFIT?
Acceleration: I expect MedFIT to allow the various companies involved to accelerate their innovation and partnerships in addition to commercializing new ideas that impact health care in the market. The others themes I would like to associate with MedFIT are networking and advancing the quality of care
