Monday, March 17, 2008

New HyperMed chief to drive commercialization

By Ryan McBride

After his prior job as president of a medical devices firm with more than $1 billion in annual sales, Mark Carbeau has taken the reins at a small Massachusetts company nurturing the first buyers of its unique medical-imaging system.

Carbeau, who became CEO of HyperMed Inc. in late February, said he was drawn to the Burlington-based firm because its impact on patients could reach as far as women recovering from breast cancer and U.S. veterans with diabetes.

"The technology and the platform have substantial potential to help physicians as they care for sick patients," said Carbeau, 47, who has spent most of his career in the Boston area as a life sciences executive and business consultant. "Ultimately, this medical advance translates into a solid commercial opportunity."

Launched commercially last summer, HyperMed's OxyVu system uses hyperspectral-imaging technology to measure oxygen levels of superficial tissues like skin -- a key indicator of whether tissue is alive or dead. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared the system to be marketed for assessing circulatory problems, and physicians are already using the product to diagnose diabetic foot ulcers. Carbeau has taken over the company to drive commercialization and at the same time execute plans to close a pair of financing deals.

Carbeau replaced an interim chief executive at HyperMed. The company's hyperspectral technology was originally developed for the U.S. military to produce two-dimensional views of targets for warplanes.

HyperMed expects to bring in a $4 million, tranche of venture capital in April with funding from Greenwich Biotech Ventures, of Connecticut, which was the single investor in HyperMed's $5 million Series A round closed last year. Carbeau said the new investment from Greenwich would fund the company through 2008, and he envisions raising $10 million to $12 million in a Series B round this fall to step up marketing of the OxyVu. Meantime, the company is gathering data from initial users of OxyVu to show the value of the system to prospective buyers, officials said. One of the early adopters of the imaging system, a podiatrist at a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital in Phoenix, says the technology has helped him limit the amount of tissue he amputates from patients with diabetic ulcers.

"If you can save a leg, you will realistically extend a person's life for several years," said Robert Frykberg, chief of podiatry at the Phoenix VA hospital, citing mortality trends for diabetics who lose legs.

Indeed HyperMed, which has sold OxyVu systems to three veterans hospitals, views the 157 VA sites around the country as a huge market opportunity.

"We have very high interest in the VA," Carbeau said. "They have a high population of diabetics."

Beyond diagnosing diabetic foot ulcers, Carbeau said, another potential use of OxyVu would be to access mammary tissue in patients who have received treatment for breast cancer.

The firm lists the system for $36,000 and sells $50 disposable kits used to calibrate the system for each patient, Carbeau said. He also said the multiple markets the system is capable of serving could bring potential revenue of more than $1 billion annually.

Carbeau said he developed experience with billion-dollar businesses as president of the U.S. wound care business of Kinetic Concepts Inc. (KCI), a medical technology firm based in San Antonio, Texas, where he helped grow annual revenue of his product unit from about $650 million to more than $1 billion between 2005 and 2007. He said his departure from KCI came last summer, when the firm restructured its management team.