New Hampshire’s medtech companies are creating groundbreaking products known globally, but many of their in-state peers have no idea what they do. These life sciences companies may operate quietly behind the scenes, but an event held May 27 by NH Life Sciences (NHLS) and the MedTech Collaborative (MTC) shined a spotlight on how deep and interconnected the state’s innovation ecosystem has become.
Resonetics, a Nashua-based contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) that specializes in nitinol, also known as nickel titanium, hosted representatives from nearly two dozen companies for networking, a medtech panel discussion and a lightning round of presentations.
“We heard we needed an opportunity to bring our medtech companies together, for them to understand what everybody does and to unify more of our companies, as we’re really trying to grow and advance the life sciences sector in the state,” said Andrea Hechavarria, NHLS president. “If you’ve been paying attention to the news in New Hampshire, our industry is a priority growth sector for the state.” In fact, NH outpaces the nation at with rapid employment growth of 27.9% since 2019.
This is the first NHLS event co-sponsored with the MTC, which grew out of NH’s upper valley region with a focus on the northern New England region.
“What we've really tried to do with MTC is bring people together with opportunities to meet one another, but more importantly to learn about the community around them,” said Greg Lange, CEO of Simbex and president of the collaborative. “We ended up having 35 different companies that are all in the medtech space in at our first meeting. The problem is, we live in silos, we're doing our work, but our heads are down, and what we don't realize is that ‘Daniel over here needs a regulatory person, and by the way, Sandra over here is a regulatory person.’ How do we connect those people?” These types of gatherings create the connective tissue across innovators, manufacturers, suppliers and support organizations.
Kevin Kelly, CEO of Resonetics, discussed how collaboration across the medtech ecosystem supports innovation, commercialization and long-term growth.
“Resonetics offers different entry points for new customers: early stage, midstream or advanced stage,” said Kelly. “Our whole idea is to nurture them and work with them. When I meet a customer, I always say, their success is going to be our success, so it's really important that we work with them and help them along the way.”
A panel discussion that included Emily Caporello of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), Clayton Hall of the Medical Device Manufacturers’ Association, Skander Limem of Becton Dickinson and Company and Nate Doemling, president of HiArc, discussed funding support, scaling, commercialization challenges and emerging technologies, including AI. They discussed how, while growth and profitability are important, addressing gaps in patient care remains the driving force behind innovation.
“The work that we do matters,” said Doemling.
Caporello, who is the director of the NINDS Small Business Program, said the department wants to fund health-care advancements. She has seen companies have the most success when applying for federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grants, which cover R&D costs, with matching state-level grants or other funding that can cover non-R&D operational costs. Caporello encourages medtech innovators interested in this funding to get in touch for more detailed instructions on how to apply.
“Typically, we'll ask for a one-pager of what your technology is, what you're hoping to do, and we will find the right person for you to talk to,” she said. “What a good application looks like could be different for different institutes. There are now newly published priorities for every institute at NIH for their small-business program, and those priorities will matter a lot.”
After the panel, a lightning round allowed nearly two dozen companies to present their work. The presentations showcased the breadth of innovation across New Hampshire’s medtech ecosystem. Participants were global enterprises and startups going through early phases of development, including:
With NHLS’s first medtech-focused event, it continues to build a more connected life-sciences ecosystem. By bringing together established companies, startups and support organizations, NHLS can better identify industry needs and help emerging companies navigate growth.
The event reinforced that New Hampshire’s medtech sector is growing and collaborative and positioned to support innovation from early-stage startups to global commercialization.