BME Seminar Series: Dr. Marwane Barrada-Sounni, Cleveland Clinic

"How to Build a Successful MedTech Start-up Company - Myths and Tricks"

In a shift from service-based to value-based healthcare, medical device start-ups have sprouted out with many different value propositions focusing on improving clinical results to patients or reducing cost hospitals.  Yet, not all of these companies are successful; in fact the success rate is about 10% at best.  This lecture analyzes reasons associated with successes and failures of these medtech companies and provide business, regulatory, and clinical tools to help improve commercialization success from the inception phase of an idea.  Concepts such as Unmet Clinical Need, Value Proposition, Exit-time, Funding Sources, and importance of management team shall be discussed.  The purpose of this presentation is to provide a framework for researchers, students, and faculty to improve odds of translation and be involved in a risky, yet fun and rewarding activity.

Bio:

Marwane Berrada, Senior Director, Product Development at the Cleveland Clinic has been a leader in the field of medical devices for over fifteen (15) years, with extensive experience in medtech product development and commercialization. His current responsibilities include resolving clinical unmet needs for the Heart and Vascular Institute and spinning out projects or companies; Board advisor to companies who have received commercialization funding from the Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center; and Project Director at NCAI-CC (NIH Center for Accelerated Innovations) a pilot program initiated by the NIH to mind the "valley of death" funding and accelerate commercialization.

His product expertise has been in percutaneous therapies such as electrophysiology, structural heart, cardiovascular and endovascular devices, in addition to product commercialization of orthopedic implants. Through his engineering and business backgrounds, Marwane is experienced in leading both traditional and virtual R&D teams throughout the entire development life-cycle including 510k and PMA regulatory tracks. Marwane has held various technical/engineering, managerial, and executive management positions at Boston Scientific, Microvena, ev3
(acquired by Covidien, now Medtronic), CryoCath Technologies (acquired by Medtronic), Bavaria Medical Technologies, Vascular NanoTransfer and OligoMedic. Currently Marwane holds nine patents in medical devices and more than thirteen patent applications. Marwane holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and an MBA in Finance from McGill University.