#46: Todd Langevin – Establishing Deep Brain Stimulation - the industry perspective

Stimulating Brains

So far, in the podcast, I have been interviewing key opinion leaders from academia and clinical practice, and sometimes individual patients that graciously shared their insights after undergoing DBS. However, beyond patients and clinicians, there is a third component necessary for DBS to be successful, which are our partners in the industry. Without great industry leadership, it is hard if impossible to translate scientific findings into clinical practice. For instance, when the Grenoble team developed deep brain stimulation back in the 80ies and 90ies, they needed a strong industry partner to bring their breakthrough therapy into clinical practice. In some of the upcoming episodes including the present one, I will interview executives from the device industry.

Who better to start this journey with than Todd Langevin, who has been a key figure in the field of DBS and neuromodulation on the industry side. Following the success of Benabid’s team in Grenoble, inside Medtronic, Todd led the internal venturing team that pitched, developed and launched DBS, which is now an $800M business worldwide. So – in a sense – we may owe it to Todd’s team similarly as much as to the scientific and clinical team of investigators in Grenoble that DBS has become a therapy that is being applied, world-wide. During his 20 years at Medtronic, Todd grew the DBS business to a $350 million unit revenue. After a brief hiatus in the cardiac world, he moved back into the field of DBS to lead the startup Functional Neuromodulation as CEO, which aims at establishing DBS to the fornix as a treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease. Indeed, under Todd’s leadership, the company achieved a CE mark for the treatment in Europe. Finally, in 2021, Todd moved to Biotronik, where he currently is the President of the Neuromodulation Business.