An interview with retiring Medtronic CEO Bill Hawkins.

The aortic endograft market stands out in the medical device arena for its rich history of failure. The number of products that have been pulled from the market or axed before they reached it exceeds the number of models currently available in the US. But despite these past failures, endovascular aortic procedures have thrived thanks to researchers’ tenacity. At this year's International Congress on Endovascular Interventions, top surgeons discussed a number of new devices and techniques aimed at widening the scope of endovascular aortic repair to a broader range of patients.

Until now, B. Braun, one of the oldest players in cardiovascular devices, has been comfortable in its niche. B. Braun's cardiovascular business is actually made up of two units, one that makes products for interventional radiologists and surgeons in the peripheral field, the other on a range of devices used in interventional cardiology. But the investment the company is making in a new technology, drug-eluting balloons, could be disruptive, if not to interventional cardiology, at least to the cardiovascular device companies and none more so than B. Braun itself.