Maetrics is a global, full service life sciences consultancy firm that has worked with 4 of the top 5 medical device companies, 8 of the 10 top pharmaceutical companies and 6 of the top 10 biomanufacturing companies. Given Maetrics’ breadth of experience and expertise, I wanted to sit down with Edward Tomlinson, Managing Director of Maetrics, to hear his opinions on the challenges that medical device manufacturers and the industry as a whole will face in the years ahead. So Edward, how would you say the medical device industry is progressing as a whole?  By any financial method of analysis the industry is doing very well. It is growing faster than pharmaceuticals, there continues to be a robust series of mergers/acquisitions and as the global population both grows and ages there is an ongoing upturn in the addressable market for their products. Adoption of technologies such as mobile or e-Health and 3, or 4-D printing promises many new avenues of treatment. However not everything is all roses. The regulatory agencies around the world are increasing their level of oversight in all areas from product development and approval through manufacturing, sales and marketing practices and post launch patient safety monitoring. Further, the revenue and margin from product sales is increasingly dependent on patient outcomes. In order to protect their market position companies need to not only improve their financial performance to avoid becoming a takeover target but must also up their game in product development, compliance and safety …