In mid-May, Cameron Health Inc. struck media gold when the New York Times and the New England Journal of Medicine both gave prominent coverage to the company’s efforts to develop the medical device industry’s first subcutaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD).
Not bad for a relatively unknown startup in San Clemente, California.
But just a week before that media bonanza, Cameron issued a press release that received scant notice but contained news crucial to the company’s future. It had just hired a fellow by the name of Warren Watson to become its executive chairman.
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Watson, you see, spent seven years as vice president of research and development for Medtronic Inc.’s (NYSE: MDT) core cardiac rhythm management business (CRDM), which includes pacemakers and ICDs. He also chaired Medtronic’s Corporate R&D Council.
From Watson’s LinkedIn page: Led “over 1,800 professionals worldwide. Successfully released over 130 new products in 8 years while driving down product development cycle time over 30 percent, improving predictability by more than 200 percent and generating over $30 billion of new product revenue.”
In his 30-plus year career at Medtronic, Watson also served as general manager of several business units, including pacemaker leads, cardiac ablation and neurostimulation to treat sleep apnea. A graduate of the University of Minnesota, Watson advises the school on new medical device companies as CEO-in-Residence for the university’s Venture Center.
Oh, and did I mention he’s the son-in-law of Earl Bakken, Medtronic’s founder whose battery-powered pacemaker gave birth to the medical device industry in Minnesota? For Cameron, that alone represents some pretty good mojo.
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Watson essentially is a walking memory bank of Medtronic’s CDRM research and development efforts for most of this decade. And in that time, I’m sure he came across something on subcutaneous ICDs.
Ironically, it was under Watson’s leadership that Medtronic developed its infamous Sprint Fidelis lead. In 2007, Medtronic stopped selling the lead after reports the wire broke apart inside the body. Cameron designed its system to fix that problem by implanting the device just under the skin in the subcutaneous tissue.
One has to wonder if the Sprint Fidelis debacle motivated Watson to join Cameron, where his responsibilities go beyond running board meetings. As an executive chairman, Watson is intimately involved with company operations.
I write this post partly in response to some in Minnesota’s medical device community who downplayed or dismissed Cameron’s work.
“It’s bull****,” one former top medical device executive told me. “I don’t know any [doctor] who would use it.”
“In conclusion, the ‘Minnesota’s medical device community’ is not just ‘skeptical about a technology developed by a Californian startup’, they simply know better,” one reader wrote.
Another reader offered this thought: “I assure you that this technology has been evaluated by the Big 3, and while a device of this design may find a niche in this market, it is certainly not an equivalent to much of what is already out there.”
The last comment especially bothered me. The reader implies that any technology not green-lighted by Medtronic, Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE: BSX) or St. Jude Medical Inc. (NYSE: STJ) won’t amount to much.
In addition to Watson, Cameron’s management team is loaded with Minnesota individuals who used to work for St. Jude Medical and Guidant Corp.’s cardiac rhythm management business in Arden Hills, Minnesota. Heck, Boston Scientific, which now owns Guidant, is even an investor in Cameron!
So clearly, there are some smart, experienced medical device guys who think highly of Cameron’s technology.
But for me, the question is not whether Cameron will amount to anything. As a high-risk startup, it could fall flat on its face in a few years. No, the real question is why is this company not based in Minnesota, especially with all of the medical device talent, connections and resources here?
It’s no accident that Cameron is headquartered in California. The state not only enjoys a robust venture capital base but also a vibrant entrepreneurial community that embraces risk.
It’s hard to find that culture in Minnesota where anything not done by the “Big Three” is apparently not worth doing at all.
