Erie-based company funded to reduce catheter-related infections

ERIE, Pennsylvania — Two years ago, Dr. Anthony Colantonio and Dr. Menno Jager were discussing the case of a friend who suffered from a catheter-related bloodstream infection — something that has been estimated to affect 250,000 people and result in 30,000 deaths each year.

Next week, the company borne of that conversation will close its $1.5 million capital raise, Colantonio said.

Colantonio and Jager are co-founders of PSI Medical Catheter Care, which seeks to improve the way intravenous catheters are disinfected and protected from bacteria.

“There are several things done now to the catheter at the spot where it enters the skin,” Colantonio said in a phone interview. “There are other locations on the catheters themselves that can harbor bacteria, and those have gone largely unaddressed at this point.”

Colantonio said roughly 30 to 60 percent of catheter-related infections are the result of bacteria transmitted from those surfaces.

The company, housed in the Erie Technology Incubator at Gannon University, has filed patent applications for two products. It will use the money its raised for manufacturing, Food and Drug Administration clearance and clinical trials, Colantonio said. He declined to identify the angel investors.

The company’s first big boost came earlier this year, when it won a business-plan contest sponsored by the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northern Pennsylvania, among others. The contest’s $100,000 prize allowed Colantonio, an anesthesiologist, and Jager, a veterinarian, to hire their first employee, general manager Chris Cuzzola.