MedTech Innovator Asia Pacific LIVE

About MedTech Innovator Asia Pacific LIVE

Webinars to the public are an hour in length and are live-streamed on our YouTube Channel and APAC LinkedIn They will also be recorded and available for later viewing below. Our Cohort receives personalised and closed-door Q&A sessions after each public livestream.

The goal of the MedTech Innovator webinars is to provide the medtech ecosystem and our portfolio companies with feedback from experts and professionals in areas that are specific to the strategic needs outlined in our discussions and surveys. Strategic areas to be covered include: intellectual property, product development, commercialization, reimbursement, healthcare economics, regulatory strategy, clinical trial design and execution, and fundraising.

Our webinars are administered virtually and consist of one or more panelists addressing key questions supplied in advance by the MedTech Innovator Accelerator companies, as well as a general discussion on the topic within the context of the evolving healthcare ecosystem.


Webinar 1 – Perfecting Your Pitch Video

Langston Suen (Founder & CEO, Opharmic Technology)

Langston Suen is the CEO of Opharmic Technology, a medtech company founded based on his invention on non-invasive ultrasound ocular drug delivery. Under his leadership, Opharmic is now offering turnkey solutions to pharma partners around the world to adopt this cutting-edge technology in their new or existing pipelines in ophthalmology and beyond.

Ashwin Ramachan (CEO & Founder, Sapyen)

Having raised over $215 million in venture capital for healthcare and life sciences startups, Ash is the Founder and CEO of Sapyen, an at-home male fertility diagnostic company built for the 200 million aspiring fathers around the world who are struggling to conceive and feel stigmatised.

Coming from having previously led the United Nations’ efforts to mitigate the detrimental humanitarian consequences of the Arab Spring, Ash is a seasoned strategist with experience across startups and venture, diplomacy, and commercialisation. In 2018, Ash co-led the University of Melbourne’s efforts to launch Australia’s first Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer fellowship before taking on a role managing the tech investment portfolio at Australia’s largest equity crowdfunding company, Birchal.


Webinar 2 – Fundraising, Term Sheets & Deal Structuring

This webinar will highlight some key differences (and similarities) in the current Medtech fund raising environment between Asia vs U.S. We will examine if term sheets and deal structures differ, and what is behind some of the more intricate deal terms in a team sheet.

Fong-Ming Koh, PhD (Investment Principal, LYFE Capital, Singapore)

Dr Fong Ming Koh is a Principal at LYFE Capital, a global healthcare investment platform dedicated to advancing the healthcare landscape through strategic value creation. LYFE’s diverse investment portfolio spans the entire healthcare sector, encompassing therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics, and emerging sub-sectors across North America and Asia. Prior to joining LYFE, Fong was the Head of Life Sciences at Heritas Capital, a Singapore-based healthcare-focused impact fund manager. A developmental biologist by training, he has extensive research experience spanning pluripotent stem cells, epigenetics and cancer. Dr Koh received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of California, San Francisco.

Daniel Teo (Managing Partner, Hunniwell Lake Ventures, U.S.)

Daniel is a career CFO/COO who has directly led 29 investments, totaling more than $500 million. He has also orchestrated divestments of a similar scale and arranged hundreds of millions of dollars of debt financing for various companies in the US, Asia, South America, and the Middle-East. He was an early innovator in several private asset-backed investment trusts between 2007 and 2011, and the driver behind the establishment of a small $10M in-house venture fund for a Fortune Global 50 company. He has consulted for a number of Silicon Valley venture funds that are focused on commercializing leading-edge US technologies in China.

Daniel has been a CFO for both private and publicly-listed companies, start-ups as well as Divisional CFO for Fortune 500 companies. He has been involved in the medical devices space since 2007 and was most recently, the CFO of Reach Surgical, where he was also responsible for the international business and all its international joint ventures.

He has a Bachelor’s degree in Natural Sciences with an emphasis on medical physics from Cambridge University, a Master’s degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, as well as, finance and accounting qualifications from the ACCA in London. While at Cambridge and at Stanford, he was respectively, a Cambridge Commonwealth Fellow and an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow.

John Hyung-Jun Kim, MD (Managing Director, Aphelion Capital, U.S.)

John Hyung-Jun Kim completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Stanford University Medical Center. Dr. Kim completed his undergraduate studies in biochemistry from Harvard University, and is a graduate of Duke University’s School of Medicine and the Fuqua School of Business, where he concentrated on health sector management. Dr. Kim has worked as a medical consultant in biogenetics, and was previously with Bear Stearns & Company as an Equity Research Associate. Dr. Kim continues to practice part-time as a hospitalist, keeping Aphelion Capital current with medical trends.

Dr. Kim sits on the Board of Directors at Siesta Medical, Zeto, and Moving Analytics.


Webinar 3 – M&A and Working with Strategics

In this session, the panelist will share invaluable insights, practical tips, and real-world experiences on successfully navigating mergers, acquisitions, and strategic partnerships within the Medtech sector.

Felicia Chung (Region Business Development Lead, Olympus Corporation, APAC)

Felicia leads Olympus’ business development efforts for APAC and China regions, as well as Global Urology and Single-Use.

This includes identifying strategic opportunities for Olympus that drive complementary and/or innovative growth within the exciting Medtech space.

Under Felicia’s thought leadership, she initiated, lead and announced Olympus’ first ever APAC Innovation Program (“OAIP”) which was launched out of the APAC region.

The Program aims support the innovation ecosystem, identify and collaborate with Visionaries in this part of the world. Felicia sees APAC and China as very promising regions comprising of a hotbed of innovative and bold ideas, especially in the fields of digital and AI solutions.

Prior to joining Olympus, Felicia served in similar corporate development positions with other Corporates (Linde AG and Cargill, Inc.), executing M&A transactions from 2016 to 2021.

This follows her prior experience and interest in M&A transaction execution, which saw her career commencing at Citi Investment Banking in 2008 and subsequently Deutsche Bank in 2014.

Nina Zou (Senior NBD Director, Johnson & Johnson, China)

Nina Zou is responsible for leading external partnership and M&A initiatives for Johnson & Johnson MedTech in China, supporting the company’s innovation and growth agenda since 2022.
Nina joins the Business Development Team with extensive experience in both the J&J MedTech China DePuy Synthes and Ethicon franchises. Originally joining Johnson & Johnson Medical China in 2005, Nina has led the DePuy Synthes China New Product Development Team for 2 years. Nina established this new function in China, championing portfolio strategy development by working closely with China and global cross-functional teams to effectively identify and realize China-specific innovation opportunities. Prior to serving as the DePuy Synthes NPD Lead, Nina led the DePuy Synthes Spine marketing team beginning for 4 years through portfolio optimization, identifying high-growth opportunities in both cervical and thoracic lumber. Before Spine, Nina worked in Ethicon for 11 years in sales and marketing roles of increasing responsibility, including 5 years of experience in upstream Marketing.


Webinar 4 – U.S. & APAC Regulatory Strategy

The aim of the session is to highlight key differences and similarities between the regulatory pathways in APAC and the US for medical devices.

Miang Tanakasemsub (Head of Regulatory Affairs, Johnson & Johnson Vision, APAC)

Miang is a Pharmacist, MBA. She has more than 25 years of regulatory affairs experience with numbers of medical devices and pharmaceutical companies. Her current position at JNJ Vision is the Regional Regulatory Affairs head, Asia Pacific. Miang has a board experience in Regulatory Affairs, Clinical Research, Reimbursement, Government Affairs and Quality Assurance in Asia Pacific including Japan. Prior to Cardinal Health, Miang worked for numbers of healthcare companies (Takeda, Boston Scientific, JNJ, Actelion, Cochlear, Bausch & Lomb, Zimmer Biomet, Alcon & Cardinal Health) in different locations (Bangkok, Hong Kong, Sydney and Singapore). In addition to her current job, she has been heavily involved with numbers of harmonization activities including GHTF, AHWP, APEC RHSC and ACCSQ. She was one of the members of GHTF SG02 (Postmarket Surveillance) and Co-chair of AHWP TC 2 terms. Currently, she is a chair of APACMED Regulatory Affairs group and an industry Vice chair of GHWP (Global Harmonization Working Party) Technical committee.

Rob MacCuspie, Ph.D. (Regulatory Affairs Manager, Proxima Clinical Research, U.S.)

Rob MacCuspie is a Regulatory Affairs Manager at Proxima Clinical Research, a contract research organization that serves the emerging drug and medical device industries. At Proxima, Rob works on
various medical device and drug product consulting projects and submissions across all stages of development.  Prior to joining the Proxima team, Rob served as the VP of Science at a rolled goods materials science startup, leading their entrance to the medical device space by helping identify regulatory strategies and leading building their first quality management systems, and as Director of Science at a leading dietary supplement company, where he contributed to the company’s first medical device product development regulatory and testing strategies and developed and delivered product education for practitioners and consumers. Rob has previously been the First Faculty and Director of Nanotechnology and
Multifunctional Materials programs on the startup team at Florida Polytechnic University, founded a consulting company to help scientific startups accelerate their path to market, and worked in the national lab system including at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, contributing
with the Nanotechnology Characterization Lab collaboration between NIST, NCI, and FDA to develop standards and methods to accelerate cancer nanomedicines from bench to bedside. 
 
Rob earned a PhD in Nanotechnology and Materials Chemistry from The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, a Bachelors of Science in Chemistry and a Bachelors of Science in Molecular Biology and Microbiology from the University of Central Florida. He has published 45 peer-reviewed publications which have been cited over 4,000 times, and holds 1 US Patent.
Rob has also written and presented content for multiple scientific companies to help with their product education and technical sales efforts, and has been on dozens of product launch teams.

Webinar 5 – Health Economics & Working with Payors

 

This session aims to highlight key differences in medtech reimbursement and the development of health economic narratives between the U.S. and Asia Pacific.

Gordon B. Schatz (President, Schatz Reimbursement Strategies LLC, U.S.)

Gordon is the President of Schatz Reimbursement Strategies LLC, advising medical device companies on coding, coverage, and payment to improve market access. Previously, as a lawyer at Reed Smith, a global law firm, Gordon advised start up and Fortune 100 device manufacturers on how to combine reimbursement with product development, regulatory, marketing, sales, and customer support. During his tenure at Reed Smith, Gordon served as the head of the Health Care Group and later as the Asia Life Science Integration Partner in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
After leaving Reed Smith, Gordon was appointed Executive Vice President – Healthcare – at China Trade Strategies and then formed his own consulting firm focusing on the United States healthcare system, especially Medicare and private payers. Gordon has obtained new CPT and ICD-10-PCS codes, expanded coverage and increased payment for innovative devices. He conducts front-end reimbursement landscape feasibility studies, followed by strategy development and implementation for devices in the cardiac, orthopedic, neurology, ophthalmology, imaging, diagnostics, and many other clinical specialties.
Gordon serves as a judge in the MedTech Innovation program. In addition to numerous publications on reimbursement in the US, he co-edited with Professor Wang Chenguang at the Tsinghua School of Law in Beijing, the FDLI Compilation of Chinese FDA Regulations on Drugs and Devices. Gordon also authored chapters on Regulatory Challenges for Medical Device Under the China FDA (Food and Drug Regulation in an Era of Globalized Markets, Academic Press, 2015) and co-authored the chapter on China in Commercialization of Health Care (Thompson Reuters 2013). His article on China’s Drug Pricing regulations appeared in the China Business Review. He has been quoted in the NY Times and Wall Street Journal.
A graduate of Haverford College with Honors in History, Gordon earned his Juris Doctor law degree at Temple University Law School, with the Barristers Award for Trial Advocacy. He lives in the Washington DC area.

Anh Bourcet (Global Market Access Leader, Founder HAS4P, Health Access Solutions)

Seasoned Global Healthcare Leader, Anh Bourcet (Nguyen) has a 15-year track record of driving excellence and transformation in Market Access for pharmaceuticals, medical devices and diagnostics. Known for establishing strategic multi-stakeholder partnerships, Anh has shaped access policies, built the Market Access function from the ground up, transformed clinical practices, for optimised patient access to innovations.

Passionate about improving patient access to innovations, her leadership positions enabled her to drive change within and outside organisations. In her role of APAC Director Health Economics & Market Access in Johnson & Johnson, she led successful premium reimbursements and accelerated launches. She then joined Abbott to head Market Access and build the function from the ground up in APAC. Prior to these, she worked as a regulator, developing policies for innovations at the French Health Safety Agency (ANSM).
Her contributions to the field have been widely recognized, and she has been a regular speaker at major international conferences, providing valuable insights on topics such as access, reimbursement, digital health and health data.


Webinar 6 – PR & Brand Management

Laura Nobles (Founder and Chief Persuader, Pazanga Health Communications, U.S.)

It all started in an accidental rhetoric class. That’s where Laura Nobles found herself as a UC Berkeley freshman many years ago. There – and in subsequent courses – she learned to argue a case, tell stories with power, and move audiences to act. And she’s made that passion her life’s work ever since.

Today, Laura is a trusted C suite advisor who offers clients strategic thinking and communication programming designed to drive market adoption, sales growth and, when appropriate, successful exit strategies.

With more than 20 years of experience, Laura is steeped in healthcare and adept across virtually all communication disciplines. Since opening Pazanga (previously Nobles Global Communications) in 2006, Laura has overseen growth-focused public relations and integrated marketing programs for U.S., European and Israeli clients ranging from emerging venture-backed companies to mid-size and Fortune 500 organizations. Her knowledge spans clinical segments.

Laura was previously senior vice president/managing director for FischerHealth, a subsidiary of global PR firm Porter Novelli. There she provided senior counsel to medical device, health information technology, health services and life sciences clients and led the execution of numerous strategic public relations and integrated marketing programs. Over her five-year tenure, Laura’s many clients included Boston Scientific, Medtronic, DePuy Orthopaedics, Thoratec Corporation, CSL Behring, Elsevier and Epocrates.

Laura wasn’t always in healthcare, even though it’s where she was destined to be. Her earlier leadership roles were in the high tech, industrial manufacturing and consumer products segments.

Laura is one of a long line of entrepreneurs, which includes her great grandfather, both of her grandfathers, her grandmother and her father. She lives in Newport Beach, Calif. with her husband (also an entrepreneur), 11-year-old daughter and three dogs.

Emma Jenkins-Lee (Managing Director, Spurwings Communications, SG)

Emma has spent almost two decades helping leading brands in the healthcare and technology sectors build their corporate reputations and trust with multiple stakeholders across Asia Pacific. Using her wealth of regional client experience, knack for storytelling and building compelling narratives combined with her integrated communication expertise, she leads the Spurwing team to develop truly impactful communications programmes for clients.


Webinar 7 – MedTech Manufacturing, Design & Engineering

Jim Warren (Business Unit Director, Jabil Healthcare)

Jim Warren joined Jabil in 1998 after graduating from the University of Florida with a Finance and Economics degree and continues his education with ASQ as a Black Belt.

Yan Lin Lye (Head of APAC MedTech, Cambridge Consultants)

Yan Lin is Head of Medtech APAC at Cambridge Consultants. With 15 years experience in medical devices design and development, Yan Lin has experience working with start ups and corporates across APAC, Australia, North America and Europe. While each start up is unique, they all go through similar development challenges as they struggle to get a product through a regulatory process. Yan Lin hopes to share her collective experience of working with hundreds of start ups to hopefully help accelerate new founders to success.


Webinar 8 – Building Advisory Boards & Establishing Overseas Entities

Brian Appel (Of Counsel, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, U.S.)

Brian Appel is Of Counsel in the Palo Alto office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he practices corporate and securities law. He advises companies on general corporate matters, including formation and operation, corporate governance, debt and equity financings, mergers and acquisitions, and securities-related matters. He has assisted early-stage companies in numerous capital-raising transactions, including venture capital financings.

Prior to joining the firm, Brian was an associate at Seyfarth Shaw LLP, where he was a member of the corporate practice group and technology transactions team.

Steven Johnson (Managing Director Johnson Associates Executive Search, APAC)

Steven Johnson is an executive search consultant who specialises in the medical technology and life sciences sectors in Asia and Australia / New Zealand. Steven has undertaken over 250 executive search assignments since beginning his search career in 1997. Steven’s past clients include large global corporations such as Fresenius Medical Care, small to medium-sized medtechs such as the Australian-listed Nanasonics Limited, and smaller organisations such as Anteris Ltd.

Steven has completed search assignments across most functional areas including regional and general management, sales and marketing leadership, financial management, medical, clinical and regulatory affairs, supply chain management, compliance, etc.

Webinar 9 – Clinical Trials & Hospital Pilots

Anne De Luca (Director, Molecule2Market, APAC)

A dedicated Clinical Research professional with extensive experience in project management and compliance across all phases of clinical trials and a broad range of therapeutic areas; specialising in Haematology and Oncology. Demonstrated ability to maintain strong customer relationships whilst focusing on quality outcomes.

Kenny Carberry (Vice President – Clinical Development, Alira Health, U.S)

Kenny leads business development efforts and initiatives across Alira Health’s Research & Clinical Development arm for North America. His background covers a wide array of indications across pharma, medical devices, and digital health. In addition to his expertise in business development, Kenny has several years of experience in clinical trial operations and management. He offers a unique perspective on the clinical development lifecycle from generating a comprehensive strategy through executing a successful trial.


Webinar 10 – Distribution Channels: U.S. vs APAC

Paul Paras (General Manager, Commercial ANZ, Teleflex, APAC)

Paul is a seasoned professional with a diverse background in healthcare management. With a proven track record spanning over a decade, he has demonstrated expertise in leading and optimizing operations across various specialties. His most recent experiences encompasses roles as a General Manager (Commercial), Customer Experience Director, Commercial Operations Director, and Business Unit Director across Interventional Urology, Surgical, Anaesthesia and Respiratory.

As a General Manager in Australia and New Zealand, Paul oversees overall operations and strategic direction, ensuring seamless coordination between departments. He is instrumental in driving productivity, improving efficiency, and implementing innovative solutions that have led to significant improvements in both patient outcomes and organisation performance.

Paul’s background in various managerial roles uniquely positions him to navigate the complex landscape of modern healthcare. Passionate about empowering others to succeed, Paul is driven by a genuine love for helping individuals reach their full potential.

Carlin Mak (Regional Head, Singapore & Thailand, Teleflex, APAC)

Carlin is an experienced professional who has spent over a decade at Teleflex, consistently excelling in various roles. His journey at the company began as a Sales Executive, where he showcased his sales skills and a keen understanding of the industry. Over the years, he steadily climbed the corporate ladder, consistently surpassing sales targets and spearheading strategic initiatives. Carlin also played a key role in launching new products in the South-East Asia Region, taking on roles such as Senior Sales Executive, Regional Product Manager, Commercial Manager for South-East Asia, and Country Manager for Singapore.

In his most recent position as the Regional Head for Singapore & Thailand, Carlin has taken on the responsibility of overseeing the company’s operations and growth in these two competitive markets. He has been instrumental in driving Teleflex’s success, both through his own leadership and by orchestrating strategic reorganization efforts that have significantly improved the organization’s performance and structure.

Carlin’s multifaceted experience allows him to bring a unique perspective to his work, combining a deep understanding of the industry with a talent for innovation. He is not only dedicated to achieving corporate success but also to empowering others to reach their full potential and make a positive impact in the industry.

Ken Nelson (Partner, MedTech Advantage Fund, U.S.)

Over the past 10 years, Ken has led commercial efforts for disruptive technologies in the digital health, wearables, and cardiac remote patient monitoring industries, playing a significant role in building the teams and cultures for 3 of the top 4 market share players, including #1 (BioTelemetry), #2 (iRhythm), and #4 (Bardy Diagnostics).
Overall, he is a 20 year digital health, medical device, and remote monitoring innovator with successful senior leadership experience ranging from a Fortune 500 company (Boston Scientific) to a medium sized #1 market share (Biotelemetry, acquisition by Philips for $2.8 Billion in December ’20) to 3 start-ups, 1 of which eventually led to an extremely successful IPO (iRhythm) and another which was acquired by HillRom (Bardy Diagnostics) in August ’21 for what will end up being $400M+ after milestone payments.

2023 Schedule

All webinars begin at 10:00AM SGT, unless otherwise noted

Manufacturing & Supply Chain Management