Healthcare Industry News: arrhythmia
News Release - January 10, 2012
Interwest Partners Expands Medical Devices Team
Dr. Reza Zadno, Successful Serial Entrepreneur, Joins InterWest as Venture PartnerMENLO PARK, CA--(Healthcare Sales & Marketing Network)- InterWest Partners, a leading diversified venture capital firm, today announced that it is expanding its medical devices team by appointing Dr. Reza Zadno, a successful serial entrepreneur and investor, as a venture partner. Dr. Zadno will source new investments, work with existing InterWest portfolio companies and help to refine the firm's investment strategy in medical devices. The move will strengthen InterWest's longstanding commitment to its successful device franchise. Some of InterWest's past device investments include: ArthroCare, Epicor Medical (acquired by St. Jude Medical), IntraLase (acquired by Advanced Medical Optics), LenSx Lasers (acquired by Alcon), Spinal Dynamics (acquired by Medtronic) and Therasense (acquired by Abbott Labs). InterWest, which invests in a broad array of technology and life sciences companies, is currently investing InterWest X, a $650M fund.
Dr. Zadno brings experience as a successful ophthalmology and cardiology entrepreneur -- two areas of deep expertise for InterWest. He was the founder, president and CEO of Visiogen (acquired by Abbott-Medical Optics), which developed an accommodating intraocular lens to treat cataracts and presbyopia. Earlier in his career, he co-founded PercuSurge (acquired by Medtronic), which pioneered the field of distal protection devices that provide treatment of occluded carotid arteries and saphenous vein grafts. InterWest was an early investor in PercuSurge.
"As InterWest continues our long track record of investing in medical device companies, Reza's experience of founding and building successful companies that make breakthrough products will make him an invaluable resource for InterWest and the entrepreneurs that we fund," said Dr. Gil Kliman, general partner at InterWest. "While some other investors are pulling back from the device space, we see tremendous opportunity for carefully selected investments in fields like ophthalmology, cardiology, orthopedics, molecular diagnostics and neuromodulation -- areas where we can bring unique experience as investors with deep domain knowledge."
Immediately prior to joining InterWest, Dr. Zadno was a venture partner at New Leaf Venture Partners. Earlier in his career, he was with Cardiac Pathways (acquired by Boston Scientific), which markets mapping and ablation systems for the treatment of arrhythmia. Dr. Zadno started his career at Raychem Corporation, now Tyco. He holds a Ph.D. from Ecole des Mines de Paris and has filed more than 100 U.S. patents.
"As the baby boomers age, there are massive opportunities for entrepreneurs to improve and extend life by applying new technologies to serious conditions," said Dr. Zadno. "I joined InterWest because of their record of investing in leading-edge technology. I've been fortunate to be the founder of two successful device companies. I'm looking forward to using my own experience to help InterWest and other entrepreneurs execute their vision for the next generation of health care. My partners and I at InterWest are deeply committed to working with founders over the long haul to help them nurture and build successful life sciences companies."
InterWest's current device investments include: Autonomic Technologies, Cardiac Dimensions, Fluidigm, Glaukos, Gynesonics, Integrated Diagnostics, Invuity, MicroCHIPS, Microfabrica, Nanostim, Neuronetics, NeuroPace, On Demand Therapeutics (ODTx), PrimeraDx, Restoration Robotics, ReVision Optics, and Sera Prognostics.
About InterWest
For more than 30 years, InterWest has partnered with exceptional entrepreneurs to build winning technology and life sciences companies. With more than 200 years of combined operating and investing experience, the firm's investing team has raised $2.8B, completed more than 70 IPOs, and participated in nearly 60 upside acquisitions. As the firm invests InterWest X, a $650M fund, the InterWest team continues to believe that providing capital is just the beginning of a long-term collaboration with entrepreneurs to turn their vision into a thriving company.
The firm's past successful investments in life sciences include: AkaRx (acquired by Eisai), ArthroCare, Aspreva Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Galenica group), Cor Therapeutics (acquired by Millennium Pharmaceuticals), Corixa Pharmaceuticals (acquired by GlaxoSmithKline), Coulter Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Corixa Pharmaceuticals), Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Epicor Medical (acquired by St. Jude Medical), Inspire Pharmaceuticals, IntraLase (acquired by Advanced Medical Optics), LenSx Lasers (acquired by Alcon), Myogen (acquired by Gilead), NovaCardia (acquired by Merck), Spinal Dynamics (acquired by Medtronic), TheraSense (acquired by Abbott Labs) and Ventritex (acquired by St. Jude Medical).
The firm's past successful investments in information technology include: CIENA, Copper Mountain Networks, Crystal Semiconductor (acquired by Cirrus Logic), CubeTree (acquired by SuccessFactors), Cyrix (acquired by National Semiconductor), Edify (acquired by Security First Technologies), Epocrates, Kalpana (acquired by Cisco), Lightera (acquired by CIENA), Lombardi Software (acquired by IBM), Network Computing Devices, Open Silicon (acquired by Unicorn Investment Bank), PlaceWare (acquired by Microsoft), Platform Solutions (acquired by IBM), Radius, Rendition (acquired by Micron Technology), Sierra Logic (acquired by Emulex), SiTera (acquired by Vitesse), Silicon Graphics, Stratacom (acquired by Cisco) and Xilinx.
Source: InterWest Partners
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