I believe that the company needs to decide using a risk-based approach. The medical device industry is governed by risk and because of that each decision made should account for potential setbacks that may arise. If the project is a definite source of revenue then it should be pursued. However, if the company has priorities (defined by upper management) then the project may be put on hold or scrapped. One also needs to keep in mind the available resources. Coming back to what I mentioned, projects should be pursued if they will bring money to the company. Launching new products are exciting but non-successful ones are not. Another thing to mention is that you can get a patent for any idea however profitable patents really make the difference. Non-profitable patents do not.