Pulmonologists, a group of device-friendly physicians without many tools at their disposal, treat large diseases with unmet needs like emphysema, asthma, and lung cancer. They thus represent an attractive, untapped market for medical device companies. Many companies targeting emphysema have been formed by executives from the interventional cardiology industry and aim to follow the tried and true path of that industry, of introducing new minimally-invasive versions of open surgical predicate procedures. Others are following the tougher route of working in diseases like asthma, for which no device predicates exist. Companies hope to offer high volume procedures that will grow interventional pulmonology from a niche specialty treating end-stage cancer patients to a specialty that routinely performs millions of procedures on patients with non-malignant diseases that are currently poorly managed by drugs.

It's more than a coincidence that cardiology company Boston Scientific has invested in Broncus Technologies and its rival Guidant, in Spiration Inc., two start-ups with minimally-invasive devices for the treatment of lung diseases. Interventional pulmonology could just be the next double-digit growth area to succeed interventional cardiology, which is maturing; what's more, it takes advantage of the core competencies of the big firms.

South Korea has formulated new detailed policy measures to support the formation of major bioclusters, which will offer tax and other incentives in a bid to lure foreign firms and talent.