Start-Up Previews (11/2007)
Executive Summary
A preview of the emerging health care companies profiled in the current issue of Start-Up. This month's profile group, "Antibody Start-Ups," features profiles of 4-Antibody, Anaptys Biosciences and f-star. Plus these Start-Ups Across Health Care: Actuality Medical, INBONE Technologies, Interrad Medical and Tethys BioScience.
You may also be interested in...
Actuality Medical Inc.
All cancer treatments-- surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy-carry the risk of adverse effects or the need for adjuvant therapies. With two-thirds of all cancer patients today receiving radiation therapy and a significant number undergoing invasive therapies such as surgery, Actuality Medical is developing technology for improving the precision, morbidity, and quality of radiation oncology and surgical excision for soft tissue applications, starting with prostate and breast cancer.
Interrad Medical Inc.
Venous access catheters are held in place on the skin's surface with sutures, tape, or adhesive-backed catheter stabilization devices. None of these attachment methods are ideal: catheters frequently dislodge, requiring reinsertion from trained staff. Bacteria that accumulate on the skin under a sutured-down catheter hub or in tacky adhesives are a primary culprit in catheter-related bacterial infections. Interrad Medical aims to address these shortcomings with a subcutaneous catheter securement system, which anchors catheters in the fatty layer just beneath the surface of the skin.
Tethys BioScience Inc.
In diabetes, Tethys BioScience has a commercial objective different than most. Many biotech and pharmaceutical firms are working on drugs to treat the disorder or its side effects, to stave it off or even just reduce the amount of insulin a diabetic needs to inject. Tethys parts from the crowd with a brand-new way of testing for diabetes risk. It aims to thereby capture $500 million in sales annually-at least. The Tethys approach involves a panel of seven biomarkers.