ReCor’s Weiss Sees Medtech’s Rebound, Talks Renal Denervation and Innovative Strategic Financing

ReCor’s Weiss Says Medtech Works When It’s Done Well

Andrew Weiss, president and CEO, has survived the “nuclear winter” or whatever you’d like to call the dead zone that surrounded the renal denervation space. In fact, ReCor is thriving. The company is running its Paradise Renal Denervation system through its Radiance-HTN, a 550-patient-plus clinical trial in the US and Europe treating resistant hypertension. In this interview with Medtech Talk, Weiss shares how ReCor pushed forward after Medtronic’s crushing clinical trial of the Ardian device squashed most interest in the sector. “It’s clear when the Medtronic results came out, that basically froze the entire field,” Weiss says. Covidien, Johnson & Johnson, St. Jude, and Boston Scientific all dialed down or eliminated their programs. For ReCor, however, the decision to move forward was clear. “The therapy made sense. The path of physiology made sense and the market demand made sense,” Weiss states. Now ReCor has retained a strong venture syndicate while also crafting a unique strategic partnership with Otsuka Holdings, a Japanese pharmaceutical company. Weiss sees Medtech rebounding as resources consolidate behind companies that can produce strong returns. He sees growing interest from investors, traditional corporates, and other players he identifies in the podcast. And he’s happy to continue to keep working in the sector. “The wonderful thing about the CEO role is we sit at the intersection of a lot of different little worlds,” Weiss says. “One world is the investor community and we need to provide them good opportunities for return. In the other world are the doctors who want to treat people and innovate. We bring those two together, and I just think that is a worthwhile way to spend my life and I think we can be successful doing both.”