Thursday, November 10, 2011

MedicaMetrix wins WPI Venture Forum life sciences contest

By Michelle Lang

Medical device startup MedicaMetrix scored top honors, and a $10,000 award, at the inaugural WPI Venture Forum Business Plan Contest Life Sciences Track competition, announced on Tuesday.

The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, the quasi-public agency tasked with implementing the state’s 10-year, $1 billion life sciences initiative, funded the new life sciences track of the venture forum contest.

Wayland-based MedicaMetrix develops the ProstaGlove, 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. The startup intends to save health care costs of prostate cancer screening by reducing the number of unnecessary negative biopsies performed; the glove serves as a diagnostic tool that may indicate high levels of PSA Density, pointing out where males may be at risk for aggressive prostate cancer.

“This win comes at a particularly propitious time as we are starting to raise money to fund clinical trials for FDA clearance,” Christopher LaFarge, CEO of MedicaMetrix, said in a statement.

MedicaMetrix was one of two finalists, narrowed down from a pool of five life sciences track applicants for the WPI Venture Forum competition.

The WPI Venture Forum, founded in 1991, has held a technology track business plan contest for entrepreneurs in the northeast U.S.; The life sciences track opened to contestants for the first time in 2011.