Medtronic PLC’sbombshell news – the disappointing clinical results for its Simplicity renal denervation product – left a smoking crater on the medtech landscape during last week’s J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. Large-cap executives and venture capitalists who saw great promise in the new therapeutic approach spent time trying to gauge the size and scope of the damage on the medtech industry and their own particular portfolios.
The SYMPLICITY HTN-3 trial followed two successful trials that demonstrated efficacy for the approach of ablating nerves within the renal artery to lower blood pressure in hypertension patients who have...