Start-Up Previews (01/08)

A preview of the emerging health care companies profiled in the current issue of Start-Up. This month's profile groups are "NOTES Companies Sing an Upbeat Tune," and "Solid Support for Flu Vaccine Development." Plus these Start-Ups Across Health Care: Carigent Therapeutics, Cizzle Biotechnology, Genesis Medical Interventional, and ValveXchange.

A preview of the emerging health care companies profiled in the current issue of START-UP: Windhover’s Review of Emerging Medical Ventures

This month's profile groups:

NOTES Companies Sing an Upbeat Tune

Apollo Endosurgery Inc. (Also see "Apollo Endosurgery Inc. " - Medtech Insight, 1 Jan, 2008.) isn’t being too specific about its first products, other than to say it is working on a broad platform of devices that enable translumenal and endolumenal surgeries, including access devices that get surgeons into the peritoneal cavity, and long flexible surgical tools that provide the basic functions of surgery; that is, cutting, hemostasis, suturing, and tissue apposition. The company’s instrumentation is designed to work with off-the-shelf flexible endoscopes from the leaders in the field.

Medrobotics Corp. (Also see "Cardiorobotics Inc. " - Medtech Insight, 1 Jan, 2008.) hopes to develop a streamlined robotics platform that is a cost-effective, simple-to-use enabler of minimally invasive surgeries. The start-up will launch its platform in minimally invasive cardiac surgeries conducted through a single port, but at the same time it will be preparing for a future in NOTES surgeries.

[Minos Medical Inc.] (Also see "Minos Medical Inc. " - Medtech Insight, 1 Jan, 2008.) is cognizant of the need to learn to walk before running at this early stage in the NOTES field. The company is taking a blended-risk approach by initially going after high-volume procedures that aren’t complicated, and which are done laparoscopically today. The company’s strategy is to develop the tools and gain experience in near-term markets that would position it for more advanced NOTES applications in the future. Minos has already launched its first product, called Megachannel, a platform for delivering tools in and out of the bowel, the stomach, or the upper GI tract.

Solid Support for Flu Vaccine Development

FluGen Inc. (Also see "FluGen Inc." - Scrip, 1 Jan, 2008.) expects to generate revenues by helping companies that are now manufacturing human influenza vaccines in cells increase their yield up to 100-fold. The start-up is not basing its business model on the possibility of any sort of worldwide pandemic—but its founders’ expertise with such matters brings credibility that is bound to be useful in attracting potential partners.

NasVax Ltd.’s (Also see "NasVax Ltd." - Scrip, 1 Jan, 2008.) VaxiSome, a novel adjuvant/delivery system for enhacing the activity of existing vaccines, consists of lipid assemblies comprising an innovative, proprietary family of positively charged polycationic lipids. The technology generates strong adjuvant activity, with the potential for intranasal, intramuscular, or subcutaneous administration. This platform can also be applied to boost the bioactivity of various immunomodulators, such as a broad spectrum of well-established adjuvants and cytokines.

One reason that oral vaccines are so rare is that, generally speaking, the immune system in the gut does not respond to foreign proteins such as food or normal bacteria. Vaxart Inc. (Also see "Vaxart Inc." - Scrip, 1 Jan, 2008.) has developed an oral vaccine system based on a key immune receptor that recognizes a signal for viral infection that is not normal in the gut and can therefore elicit a strong immune response. The vaccine platform targets toll-like receptor 3 (TLR-3), which occurs on the surface of cells in the small intestine. TLR-3 binds to double-stranded RNA, which is only found in double-stranded RNA viruses, and then alerts the immune system to the presence of the invader.

Start-Ups across Health Care

Carigent Therapeutics Inc.’s (Also see "Carigent Therapeutics Inc." - Scrip, 1 Jan, 2008.) novel nanoparticle targeted drug delivery technology allows for controlled release of therapeutic agents, targeting drugs to a particular physiological site, tethering of surface ligands, and the ability to combine multiple agents--like imaging agents and drugs--into one vehicle. The foundation of the platform is an FDA-approved biocompatible and biodegradable polymer material, PLGA, which is made into particles at the nano- or micro-scale depending on the application.

Cizzle Biotechnology Ltd. (Also see "Cizzle Biotechnology Ltd." - Scrip, 1 Jan, 2008.) is focusing on the gene Ciz1 and its variant, found in small-cell lung cancer. The trigger for the start-up’s formation was the finding that cells require Ciz1 to grow, and that variant forms could be used for selective targeting of cancer cells, especially small-cell lung cancer. The company’s founders have shown that blocking the disrupted form of Ciz1, using a small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeted to the variant, prevented cell proliferation and growth in vitro. The specificity of the Ciz1 variant also gives it potential as a biomarker for early detection of lung cancer.

Genesis Medical Interventional Inc. (Also see "Genesis Medical Interventional Inc." - Medtech Insight, 1 Jan, 2008.) is billing its F.A.S.T. (Facilitated Aspiration/Suction Thrombectomy) Funnel Catheter as "an elegantly simple solution" to more effectively remove particulate from the blood in cardiovascular disease. The funnel catheter is delivered proximal to the lesion, so that debris is captured upstream. The funnel occluder also harnesses native blood pressure for occlusion, which minimizes the device’s force against the vessel wall.

In heart valve surgery, there have been no home runs yet among the numerous efforts to improve the durability of tissue valves. ValveXchange Inc. (Also see "ValveXchange Inc." - Medtech Insight, 1 Jan, 2008.) has a different solution: improving the way that worn valves are replaced. The start-up is developing a tissue valve with exchangeable leaflets that can be exchanged either percutaneously or via minimally invasive techniques. By focusing on the replacement procedure, ValveXchange aims to make bioprosthetic valves more attractive to the increasingly younger patient population for whom its faster and safer exchange technology will provide a lifetime solution.