BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - July 1, 2009) - Elsevier Business Intelligence announced today that leading venture capitalists who participated in the keynote panel discussion which kicked-off its annual 'IN3 East' strategic partnership and investment meeting are optimistic about the effect that the Obama administration's health care goals will likely have on the medtech industry.

"Generally speaking, medical devices as a category are not likely to be targeted... and it is likely to be part of the solution, in my view," said Paul LaViolette, Venture Partner, SV Life Sciences™. "The less-invasive revolution is going to continue for a long time. It is a means by which to provide cost-effective care. There are huge categories of disease that can be positively affected by this. Large companies are not going to innovate, generally speaking. They are still going to need venture-backed vitality to drive the engine of growth in devices. So I think we need a little bit of stabilization in the concern about what the health care system (reform) will entail. I think... devices as a general space will be healthy, and that the venture-backed model is going to be absolutely requisite in that (paradigm)."

Mr. LaViolette also echoed other panelists regarding his perspective about the drought in medtech IPOs. "It a lot harder to innovate diversification than it is to acquire it," said Mr. LaViolette. "So if you talk to the leaders across the device industry -- and I do that routinely -- every one of them contends that they will be more active on the M&A side over the next three years than they have in the last three years... I think it's nice to have an IPO market, but that's not really a hugely vital part of the exit strategy for most categories (of medical technology), and I don't think that (an IPO market for devices) matters that much."

The next IN3 Medical Device event sponsored by Elsevier Business Intelligence -- IN3 Investor Day & Summit -- will be held in San Francisco on October 19-21, 2009, at the InterContinental Mark Hopkins hotel. The annual IN3 Investor Day & Summit is the West Coast's largest strategic partnership and investment meeting for hundreds of senior-level medical technology executives, investors and emerging medtech companies. For more information, or to register, contact Kristy Grimes at 480-985-9512, 888-290-2225 (U.S. toll-free), or email k.grimes@elsevier.com.