Set the product direction.
Connect unmet needs, technical differentiation and portfolio priorities. Make the important trade-offs explicit before committing people, time and capital.
ENGINEER. EXECUTIVE. COMPANY BUILDER.
Lawton
Laurence.
Medical devices · Drug delivery · Combination products
Building the technology. And the business around it.
20+ yearsIn medical technology
Enterprise + ventureLeadership across scale
Invention to executionTechnical and commercial perspective
01 / BIOGRAPHY
An inventor’s curiosity. An operator’s perspective.
Lawton Laurence is a medical technology executive and engineer who connects invention, product strategy and business execution. His experience spans building development organizations, leading complex device portfolios and bringing an entrepreneur’s perspective to the decisions that shape a company’s future.
Across more than two decades in medical technology, Lawton’s work has moved between the detail of a mechanism and the bigger questions of product direction, organizational capability and commercial value. He brings hands-on engineering experience alongside responsibility for teams, partnerships and business performance.
His background includes enterprise device and combination-product development at Apellis Pharmaceuticals, research and technology leadership at West Pharmaceutical Services, and commercial and product-development roles at GE Healthcare and Merit Medical. Earlier, he founded and led ArchiMed, an orthopedic medical-device business, with responsibility for strategy, operations, sales and the profit-and-loss account.
That range shapes how he approaches a new opportunity: connect the clinical need to a differentiated product, identify the assumptions that matter most, and build the team and development path needed to make it real. Technical choices are considered alongside usability, regulatory expectations, manufacturing and the economics of the business.
Through Platform Devices, Lawton works with founders and development teams on early-stage ideas and technically demanding programs. He remains especially drawn to the point where the science is promising, the architecture is unresolved and the first disciplined experiments can change what is possible.
02 / LEADERSHIP PERSPECTIVEGood technology needs
Good technology needs
a bigger picture.
Build the capability.
Bring engineering, human factors, quality, regulatory and external partners into a development organization that can turn uncertainty into evidence and execute against a shared plan.
Carry it into the business.
Link product decisions to development risk, manufacturing readiness, partnerships and commercial outcomes—not simply to the next prototype.
03 / SELECTED EXPERIENCEAcross the product.
Across the product.
Across the business.
A career spanning development organizations, technology portfolios, commercial leadership and company building.
Apellis Pharmaceuticals
Device & combination-product developmentBuilt enterprise development capability and led work across wearable delivery, intravitreal prefilled syringes and other drug-delivery platforms. Responsibilities included design controls, partner development and regulatory engagement.
West Pharmaceutical Services
Research, technology & portfolio leadershipBuilt research and technology teams across technology scouting, innovation and scientific insights. Connected early development and external research to enterprise priorities, with reporting to the board’s Innovation and Technology Committee.
GE Healthcare & Merit Medical
Commercial strategy & product developmentHeld commercial leadership responsibility for electrophysiology consumables at GE Healthcare and led OEM market development at Merit Medical. Experience includes growth planning, customer relationships and product-development strategy.
ArchiMed
Founder & business leaderFounded and led an orthopedic medical-device company, with responsibility for business strategy, operations, regulatory submissions, investor engagement and sales. The role brought direct accountability for the full business, not only the technology.
Teva · Unilife · Synthes
Platform devices, invention & innovationEarlier leadership roles spanned drug-delivery platform selection, wearable insulin-delivery concepts, multidisciplinary development teams and surgeon-focused orthopedic innovation.
These examples describe Lawton’s individual career experience. They do not imply that the organizations are clients of, or endorse, Platform Devices.
04 / EDUCATION & ENGAGEMENTGrounded in engineering.
Grounded in engineering.
Connected to the field.
Yale University
B.S., Biomedical Engineering
Stanford University
Executive education · Customer Focused Innovation
Industry engagement has included the Biomedical Engineering Industrial and Professional Advisory Board at West Chester University and guest lecturing in biomedical innovation at the University of Pennsylvania. View the WCU advisory board
05 / PUBLIC CONTRIBUTIONS
Sharing the perspective.
The economics of combination-product development
Co-author of research examining original container closure systems and their implications for development time, cost and risk.
Read the publicationPre-Filled Syringes & Injectable Drug Devices
Speaker and day-two chair at the East Coast conference, contributing a development-leadership perspective on combination products and injectable drug delivery.
View the conference recordCareer, inventions and connections
Further career details and listed inventions are available on Lawton’s LinkedIn profile.
View LinkedInLawton Laurence is a medical technology executive and engineer whose experience spans medical devices, drug delivery and combination products. He has built development organizations, led research and technology portfolios, and held commercial and founder-level operating responsibilities. His background includes Apellis Pharmaceuticals, West Pharmaceutical Services, GE Healthcare, Merit Medical and ArchiMed. Through Platform Devices, he works with founders and development teams to connect early invention with product strategy, disciplined development and commercialization. He holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Yale University and has completed executive education in Customer Focused Innovation at Stanford University.
A meaningful problem. The right people. A path forward.
Conversations with founders, investors and medical-technology teams are welcome—especially where product direction, technical complexity and business ambition need to come together.