MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — Recent start-up Medspira has reached an agreement to market four products and technologies developed by Mayo Clinic researchers.
Two of the products are already on the market — a coil that fits over a patient’s wrist and hand to allow for more-detailed MRIs of the areas and a noninvasive device that helps patients hold their breath during imaging and image-guided biopsy procedures, according to a statement from Medspira.
Medspira has been selling the products for about three weeks, allowing the young company to have already begun generating revenue, said Chef Executive Tim Anderson.
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It’ll be awhile longer before the other two technologies that Medspira has licensed from Mayo begin bringing in money. A device for diagnosing fecal incontinence needs to be put into commercial packaging and cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Anderson estimated that it’s about a year away from hitting the market.
Also under development is a valve that would reduce bleeding during angiograms, tests in which dye is injected through a catheter into a patient’s heart in order to track blood flow or detect arterial blockage. The device, known as the Hemostasis Valve, still requires “a fair amount of development” and could be on the market in about two years, Anderson said.
Mayo Clinic is to receive royalties from the sales of the four products and also has taken an equity stake in Medspira, according to the statement. Mayo’s Office of Intellectual Property, which helps convert Mayo innovations into commercial products, has signed more than 660 license agreements since 1986.
