ARTICLE SUMMARY:
Lithotripsy, long known for breaking up kidney stones, was adapted for other interventional applications by a team from Stanford’s Biodesign Program, leading to a big win for its founders and early investors. Now the question is, will acquirer J&J be similarly rewarded for its big bet on the novel technology? Here each of the key players tells their story.
Lithotripsy is hardly a groundbreaking technology, having long been used primarily for breaking up kidney stones. That is, in part, what makes the story of Shockwave Medical even more impressive. In a nutshell, a group from what was then the Stanford Byers (now the Mussallem) Center for Biodesign found new applications for what is now called intravascular lithotripsy (IVL), which uses sonic pressure to break up calcified plaque in blood vessels. With early funding from Sofinnova Partners, they built a company that was eventually acquired for $13.1 billion by Johnson & Johnson Medtech in 2024, becoming the biggest device deal of the last couple of years.
This deal was the subject of a panel discussion at the most recent Bohemian Medical Device Summit in Rome, an annual conference sponsored by MedTech Strategist, Sofinnova Partners, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. The panel featured the original inside players responsible for founding Shockwave and completing the acquisition: Todd Brinton, MD (a founder of Shockwave, now at Edwards Lifesciences and Stanford Biodesign), Antoine Papiernik, managing partner of Sofinnova Partners, and Jennifer Kozak, VP of business development of J&J Medtech. (The interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
