by Arundhati Parmar
Repealing the 2.3% medical device tax has taken on new urgency.
There are bipartisan bills from both the Senate and the House aimed at killing this tax that many in the industry find unpalatable. The tax has been collected for two years. 
At the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco last week, I sat down with Brent Ahrens, a veteran life sciences venture capitalist with Canaan Partners for a wide-ranging interview. Among other things, I asked him to gauge the impact of the medical device tax and the possibility of repeal.
“I think it’s a lot of happy talk,” Brent said regarding the repeal. “And at the end of the day, our companies have said, ‘It is what it is. It’s a change in the ecosystem, it’s the cost of doing business, what’s next?'”
Ahrens said that the tax “becomes a scapegoat,” for things like outsourcing and job cuts, noting that the reality is that “it is big enough to be of note, but small enough to not have much impact.”
No one disagrees more with this assessment than fellow life sciences VC Mike Carusi, general partner with ATV and (Advanced Technology Ventures). Carusi said he welcomes the opportunity to disagree with his “friend” – Ahrens – in public.