Medical device company SonarMed Inc. has raised $1 million to help launch its first product — the Airway Monitoring System.
The Indianapolis, Indiana, company has been perfecting its system — which uses sonar waves, sensors and software to display information about ventilator breathing tube position — for market.
“You only get one chance at a first impression,” Andy Cothrel, SonarMed’s president, told MedCity News in July. “More than one company has foundered on the rocks of premature launch and we don’t want to be one of those.”
Cothrel said his six-employee company would use its fund-raise for a go-to-market strategy that included building a sales team and establishing partnerships with third-party companies that also would sell its device. The company raised $1,027,389 from 11 investors, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
SonarMed has raised about $7 million since its founding in 2005 by licensing technology developed by three Purdue University scientists, the company’s founders. The has come from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the state-supported Indiana Seed Fund and Spring Mill Venture Partners of Carmel, Indiana.
SonarMed’s Airway Monitoring System (AMS) comprises a disposable adapter that contains acoustic sensors connected by cable to a hand-held monitor. The technology works by sending audible sound waves down the breathing tube and into a patient’s lungs. The device then analyzes the returning echoes to determine if the breathing tube is properly positioned and if anything is obstructing it.
Using a breathing tube and ventilator to force air into a patient’s lungs can come with a host of problems. The ventilator can be less-than-effective if the breathing tube is incorrectly positioned or its end becomes clogged with lung secretions.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
These problems typically are managed by visual checks, chest X-rays and blood-oxygen monitors — all of which are reactionary and incomplete, Cothrel said. SonarMed’s AMS device, which was cleared by the Food and Drug Administration (pdf) in April, aims to notify healthcare providers so they can correct problems before they get serious.
“They’ve got a product approved,” said Dr. Ken Green, managing partner with Spring Mill. “Now their challenge is to get people to use it.”
