Despite industry-wide contraction last year after Medtronic's SYMPLICITY, some believe a hypertension device is just around the corner. With a market estimated in the billions or even tens of billions of dollars, both Medtronic and Boston Scientific are launching redesigned studies, and a determined handful of medtech start-ups continue to pursue a device-based solution for treating hypertension with invasive and noninvasive approaches, including renal sympathetic denervation through radiofrequency, ultrasound, or drugs; neuromodulation in the forearm; and cold therapy to specialized cells in the neck.
For decades, doctors have prescribed drugs for hypertension. But a small group of start-up companies – and a few giants like Medtronic PLCand Boston Scientific Corp. – are betting that a medical device could match or beat medications for high blood pressure.
Based on the principle of altering autonomic nervous system outflow from the brain, usually by reducing sympathetic overactivity, such devices could allow patients to cut their dependence on drugs. With...