Dive Brief:
- ProMedica Health System of Toledo, Ohio has launched a business incubator, located in a 6,000-square-foot facility at the organization's Wildwood Medical Center Campus, to nurture startups in the medical-device and bioinformatics sectors.
- The ProMedica Innovations incubator will provide entrepreneurs with office space and support services. Startups that participate in the incubator will also receive capital funding, as well as networking and mentoring opportunities.
- VentureMedGroup, the first startup to participate in the incubator, will receive $1 million in investments, half from ProMedica and half from the Ohio Third Frontier Pre-Seed Fund Capitalization Program, a state program that provides loans to technology startups. VentureMedGroup has developed the FLEX Scoring Catheter, a device that makes shallow scores in plaque lesions that can more effectively prepare patients' arteries for angioplasty treatments.
Dive Insight:
The market for medical devices continues to surge. Dr. John Pigott, the vascular surgeon and medical director of ProMedica Innovations who founded the startup, estimates that the market opportunity for a device such as the FLEX Catheter is more than $1 billion.
A 2012 report from EvaluatePharma projects the medical device market will reach $440 billion by 2018, growing at about 4.4% per year.