Galway medical device firm in worldwide deal

CROSPON, A medical device developer based in Galway, has agreed a worldwide distribution deal with a Dutch company Medical Measurement Systems (MMS), for its flagship product, EndoFLIP.

Crospon develops minimally invasive medical devices for monitoring, diagnosis and therapy in the gastroenterology area.

Its EndoFLIP tool is used for diagnostic testing of gastroesophageal reflux disease, a disorder that shows itself as severe heartburn caused by stomach acid refluxing into the oesophagus.

Crospon’s chief executive officer John O’Dea called the agreement “a very significant step” for the firm. “We’re a pre-revenue company going into a revenue situation,” he said. “The life of a product begins with RD and then goes through the regulatory approval process. The key third step, the final piece of the puzzle, is to go to market.”

MMS develops and distributes medical gastrodiagnostic systems in 60 countries around the world. Crospon’s exclusive worldwide agreement with MMS is effective immediately and will see the first customer shipments into Europe starting next month.

EndoFLIP has already received CE Mark certification from the National Standards Authority of Ireland and is in the latter stages of the approvals process with the US Food and Drug Administration.

Crospon is currently working on a handheld version of the EndoFLIP tool which would have applications in the surgical suite, said Mr O’Dea.

This could be developed easily by miniaturising the existing system. “That wouldn’t be a major technological leap,” he said.

“The worldwide market for gastrodiagnostic tools is probably less than $100 million. It’s quite a focused area. Our goal is to move into a number of other markets as well.”

Since Crospon was founded in 2006, it has spent close to €4 million on research and development, which Mr O’Dea said was “efficient”.

“Now we have the product, our RD spend could go down a little bit. Our focus now will be on upgrades,” he said.

The intellectual property on which the EndoFLIP tool is based was originally developed by Dr Barry McMahon, head of the medical physics and clinical engineering department at Tallaght hospital.

Crospon licensed the core technology from him and has subsequently filed seven further patents around the product.

Mr O’Dea said the technology had potential applications in other areas such as obstetrics and gynaecology. “It’s a platform technology and we believe there are a number of different markets it could serve,” he said.

Two years ago Crospon came to public attention after licensing inkjet-printing technology developed by HP which allows one of more drugs to be delivered to the body using a patch applied to the skin.

Mr O’Dea confirmed this part of the business would now be spun out into a separate company to be called Janisys.

“Our full focus has been on the EndoFLIP product, so we feel this best fits outside the Crospon company,” he said.