In this episode of Medsider Radio, we sat down with Antony Odell, co-founder and CEO of Echopoint Medical.

Echopoint is a London-based UCL spinout developing iKOr, an optical microcatheter for coronary diagnostics.

Antony brings over 30 years of medtech experience across Johnson & Johnson, Fresenius, and Stryker, before transitioning into startups as CEO of Tayside Flow Technologies and Tissue Regenix. He holds a BSc in Physiology and Biochemistry.

In this interview, Antony discusses translating academic IP into a commercial device, choosing early clinical sites to balance speed and learning, managing non-dilutive funding as a long-term discipline, and outlines the most important responsibilities of an early-stage medtech CEO.

Before we dive into the discussion, I wanted to mention a few things:

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If you'd rather read than listen, here's a link to the full interview with Antony Odell, which includes a link to ScottBot — an AI version of host Scott Nelson trained on every Medsider interview and playbook. Feel free to ask ScottBot any questions you'd like!

KEY MOMENTS FROM THE INTERVIEW

(03:06) - How Antony’s career centered on translating clinical insights into commercial reality
(05:54) - What Echopoint's iKOr does, and why 40% of cath lab patients leave without a diagnosis
(12:13) - How Echopoint landed its first U.S. clinical site, and what that means for the company
(13:48) - What to assess before spinning out an academic idea, and why clinician input is the first real test
(20:14) - Why Echopoint chose Barts over typical sites for its first-in-human study
(22:58) - How getting too close to one clinical site can lead to dangerous groupthink
(30:54) - Why non-dilutive funding belongs on the board agenda permanently
(39:54) - How CEOs should manage boards, control information flow, and avoid becoming a “glorified note-taker”

Translating Academic IP into a Medtech Startup: Interview with Echopoint Medical CEO Antony Odell

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Translating Academic IP into a Medtech Startup: Interview with Echopoint Medical CEO Antony Odell