When NinePoint Medical Inc. got its first seed funding from Third Rock Ventures and Prospect Venture Partners back in 2009, it didn’t have a prototype or a design, or even a product. What it did have was an idea — to create a medical device that would bring together access, diagnosis and treatment — and a CEO, former Boston Scientific chief medical officer Dr. Charles Carignan.
Three-and-a-half years later, the Cambridge-based company has some high expectations to meet. In addition to being the first medical device company that TRV launched and the recipient of a $33 million investment round, it was also part of Massachusetts General Hospital’s largest medical device tech transfer agreement when it licensed 188 patents from the hospital in 2010.
Now it’s time for Carignan and NinePoint to walk the walk. The company’s first diagnostic product, based on an imaging technology called optical coherence tomography, launched in May and is now being sold to hospitals.
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
Called NvisionVLE, the platform has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It allows clinicians to look deeper into tissue in the esophagus during an endoscopy. The device uses infrared light, as opposed to white light used in traditional endoscopy, to create real-time, high-resolution digital images of tissue up to 3 mm deep, where damaged cells characteristic of esophageal diseases like Barrett’s esophagus may be hiding.
Barrett’s esophagus is a precursor for esophageal cancer, but can be hard to diagnose because it doesn’t necessarily affect all of the tissue in the esophagus. Typically, GI specialists would perform an endoscopy where they take several random biopsies and send them to a pathologist for examination. NinePoint’s device can guide them to take biopsies where tissue appears abnormal.
Since it’s a different kind of imaging, the system (a console and probe and lens system) would add an up-front cost for providers. “But we really believe that ultimately, we should be able to reduce costs by providing better imaging to the physician so they can more carefully target areas for biopsy and provide more targeted treatment with fewer endoscopies and procedures,” Carignan said.
While the company works on physician uptake in the GI market, which is experiencing growth driven by high-definition endoscopes and procedural demand, its in-house R&D team is also continuing to innovate. Carignan said the team is working on creating catheters for different parts of the body since the device could have a host of other applications in fields like gynecology or urology. They’re also working on a tool to provide the same kind of visualization in patients who don’t want the anesthesia used for an endoscopy.
In the meantime, Carignan won’t get too caught up in thinking about an exit for the VC-backed company. He said he’s focused on making good products and a valuable company, and with that, the acquirers will come. “It’s also possible that within the next couple of years the IPO market could improve,” he said. “There may still be opportunities to go public as well.”
