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Friday, December 12, 2008
MedicaMetrix seeks first venture funding for prostate exam glove
By Marc Songini
Rodney Brown on NECN: Hacking into medical devices
Startup MedicaMetrix Inc. of Wayland is looking to raise $3 million to get its urology technology to market.
The company has invented a special sensor-equipped glove that can be used to examine a patient’s prostate gland and get an accurate recording of the gland’s size. Currently, a typical digital rectal exam, performed manually by a physician, is subjective, and doesn’t enable a full quantitative measurement. “It’s an inaccurate method, and no urologist would argue that point. But it’s reimbursable,” explained Christopher LaFarge, president and CEO of MedicaMetrix, noting that insurance companies will pay for the procedure.
MedicaMetrix’s ProstaGlove is comprised of a disposable latex glove equipped with an optical fiber inside its forefinger. The optical fiber is connected to a sensor that does the actual measurement. There are other methods to get an image of the prostate gland, such as the trans-rectal ultrasound, but these aren’t currently reimbursable by insurance for that purpose and not used for size measurement, said LaFarge.
He’s convinced of the market demand, but the key is raising the Series A round of funds. In the long term, the company wants $3 million to get to market. In the near term, MedicaMetrix needs $150,000 for the initial trials and to receive regulatory approval, said LaFarge.
In November, MedicaMetrix secured $75,000 of that cash through a matching grant from the Lowell-based Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2). LaFarge is currently meeting with potential angel investors and VC firms to secure the other $75,000 — or the full $3 million if he can get it.
LaFarge has been in a number of other startups. One of them was Somerville-based Intelligent Inspection Corp. which used robotic technology to measure oil wells. It was sold to Houston, Texas-based oil and gas development firm Halliburton Corp., he said.
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