Marc Viscogliosi co-founded Viscogliosi Brothers in 1999 along with his brothers Anthony and John, who share the same last name. Today, VB, a merchant banking firm, has a portfolio of eight medical device companies, the majority of them in the orthopedic and spine arena. Marc serves as chairman and CEO of Paradigm Spine and chairman of Knee Creations, both part of the VB family of companies. Here, he discusses VB as well as his take on upcoming trends in the orthopedic device arena.
Q: Tell me about the background of VB. It must be interesting working with your brothers on a daily basis.
Marc Viscogliosi: My brothers and I worked together for several years in Wall Street at various investment banking firms, and my brother Anthony and I focused heavily on orthopedics. The idea to form our own firm to work exclusively on orthopedics was really my oldest brother Anthony's idea. When he was younger, he was hit by a car while on his bike and it took him several years to fully recover. It was a life-changing incident and out of it borne his passion for orthopedics, which he was later able to meld with his passion for finance in forming VB. Today, we oversee a portfolio of both active and passive investments in a number of medical device companies. Working with your brothers is definitely a different experience than most work environments, but when you work with family, there is no politicking or hidden agendas. We all want to achieve the same thing, which is very different than a lot of organizations.
Q: When considering a product or company to invest in what do you look for?
MV: One thing we really love to do is find surgeons with innovative ideas that maybe have not been developed to their full potential. We typically begin with Class III devices, which means they require extensive clinical study and data collection before they can be FDA approved. My brothers and I spend about 100 days out of the year with surgeons in ORs searching to understand what challenges they have and what solutions might be out there. We are always actively engaged in discussions on ways to bridge that gap and looking for opportunities to build a business around. We typically look for a totally new product or business opportunities to build a signature business around. If a solution is a product line extension or improvement to a current technology, there is a larger ROI for firms with established distribution channels to roll out those kinds of products. We are really looking for something that is a completely new solution.
Q: What types of products and solutions are most exciting to you right now?
MV: Well, I think as we look to the future, in both the U.S. and globally, it's all going to be about delivering value. Products will be judged by their clinical and cost effectiveness. The goal is finding a better product at a cheaper cost. Every solution we look for has to add value and improve outcomes.
One of the great things about orthopedic and spine is that procedures generally have very high outcomes in regard quality of life improvement. Orthopedic devices are able to get patients back to a very high quality of life, so patients create a high demand for these products and innovation in these areas is welcomed. They want their doctors to use tools that result in higher quality care.
As we look to the future, in our opinion, the small bone and joint area is hugely underserved. There are also huge opportunities for new spine devices, and overall in orthopedics, there is a move toward biologics rather than metal. Sports medicine is also attractive as the population shifts, and people expect to maintain active lifestyles. These are some of the common themes we're looking at.
Learn more about Viscogliosi Brothers.
Q: Tell me about the background of VB. It must be interesting working with your brothers on a daily basis.
Marc Viscogliosi: My brothers and I worked together for several years in Wall Street at various investment banking firms, and my brother Anthony and I focused heavily on orthopedics. The idea to form our own firm to work exclusively on orthopedics was really my oldest brother Anthony's idea. When he was younger, he was hit by a car while on his bike and it took him several years to fully recover. It was a life-changing incident and out of it borne his passion for orthopedics, which he was later able to meld with his passion for finance in forming VB. Today, we oversee a portfolio of both active and passive investments in a number of medical device companies. Working with your brothers is definitely a different experience than most work environments, but when you work with family, there is no politicking or hidden agendas. We all want to achieve the same thing, which is very different than a lot of organizations.
Q: When considering a product or company to invest in what do you look for?
MV: One thing we really love to do is find surgeons with innovative ideas that maybe have not been developed to their full potential. We typically begin with Class III devices, which means they require extensive clinical study and data collection before they can be FDA approved. My brothers and I spend about 100 days out of the year with surgeons in ORs searching to understand what challenges they have and what solutions might be out there. We are always actively engaged in discussions on ways to bridge that gap and looking for opportunities to build a business around. We typically look for a totally new product or business opportunities to build a signature business around. If a solution is a product line extension or improvement to a current technology, there is a larger ROI for firms with established distribution channels to roll out those kinds of products. We are really looking for something that is a completely new solution.
Q: What types of products and solutions are most exciting to you right now?
MV: Well, I think as we look to the future, in both the U.S. and globally, it's all going to be about delivering value. Products will be judged by their clinical and cost effectiveness. The goal is finding a better product at a cheaper cost. Every solution we look for has to add value and improve outcomes.
One of the great things about orthopedic and spine is that procedures generally have very high outcomes in regard quality of life improvement. Orthopedic devices are able to get patients back to a very high quality of life, so patients create a high demand for these products and innovation in these areas is welcomed. They want their doctors to use tools that result in higher quality care.
As we look to the future, in our opinion, the small bone and joint area is hugely underserved. There are also huge opportunities for new spine devices, and overall in orthopedics, there is a move toward biologics rather than metal. Sports medicine is also attractive as the population shifts, and people expect to maintain active lifestyles. These are some of the common themes we're looking at.
Learn more about Viscogliosi Brothers.