Devices & Diagnostics, Startups

Fogarty Institute focuses on women’s health, launches 3 new startups

The Fogarty Institute just launched three new startups, all in women's health. The Silicon Valley-based nonprofit helps medical device upstarts get off their feet and avoid the "valley of death."

The Silicon Valley-based Fogarty Institute for Innovation, a nonprofit accelerator of sorts, just launched three new startups – all with an emphasis on women’s health. The Institute is making an active effort to focus on technologies that could help women – as well as increase female leadership in the medical device industry.

“Women’s health has been historically underdeveloped and underfunded in terms of medical innovation, yet it offers an opportunity to revolutionize patient care globally,” Ann Fyfe, President and CEO of the Fogarty Institute, said in a statement.

These are the three new startups:

  • Igantia Therapeutics: Developing a medical device using digital technology to study and treat issues related to menopause like hot flashes.
  • Marz Medical: Developing a tissue expansion technology that reduces pain and recovery time for breast or burn reconstruction surgery. While geared at mastectomy patients, the technology’s meant to help patients with burns anywhere on their bodies. It’s already FDA approved for tissue expansion during reconstructive surgery.
  • Madorra: Developing a non-hormonal device to treat vaginal dryness and atrophy, particularly in breast cancer survivors and post-menopausal women.

The center, launched by Dr. Thomas Fogarty of catheter fame in 2007, is meant to help guide digital health medical device startups in particular through the so-called “valley of death.” Entrepreneurs working with the Fogarty Institute can work closely with the El Camino Hospital in Mountain View. About a third of the Fogarty companies come out of the Stanford Biodesign medical device program.

And so far, five of the 13 Fogarty CEOs are women, according to Institute board member Fred St. Goar. Four of the startups focus on fertility maternal health; the three newest, shown above, are more geared toward age-related issues like menopause and cancer.

“It’s not your average makeup of a medical device portfolio,” St. Goar said.

The Institute takes a small chunk of equity – about 3 to 5 percent, St. Goar – in exchange for a little bit of funding – about $100,000 to $150,000. From there, it helps the startups focus their goals, aligns them with the right advisors and potential funders, and links them up with the community hospital.

“The ideal Fogarty company? We’re looking at startups that are going to be game-changing, paradigm-shifting in healthcare,” St. Goar said. “We don’t want another heart valve or another stent – we want companies that are a little higher risk.”

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