EnteroMedics recently earned the distinction of closing the second-largest financing for a private medical device company in 2006. Its success was undoubtedly due to the company's attractive position at the junction of two of the device industry's hottest markets: obesity and neuromodulation. EnteroMedics is developing an implantable impulse generator that it hopes will address multiple mechanisms in obesity.

Obesity is a multi-hundred billion dollar market ready and waiting for device developers to catch up to fill an enormous unmet need. Between the low risk, low benefit drug options for overweight patients, and the high risk, high benefit surgeries for the morbidly obese, there's a huge gap in terms of therapies. This sweet spot covers a segement of over 50 million obese patients without weight loss options. Companies with new devices for obesity hope to serve that population; the market is existing and underserved, reimbursement risk is eliminated--since many patients will pay out of pocket to have weight loss procedures--so the remaining risk revolves around technology. However, technology risk in a multi-factorial disease whose mechanisms are poorly understood is significant.

Work related to the European Commission’s promise to assess the impact of the Medical Device Regulation, including its impact on innovation, is starting to take shape.