Life Science Intelligence’s Weekly Medtech Pro Review provides a preview of select market data and startups covered in the full Medtech Pro Platform, which is a comprehensive market intelligence solution for medtech executives. As a preview of the types of content found on Medtech Pro, the Weekly Medtech Pro Review will cover select market data, procedure volumes, and startups.

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Medtech Market Snapshot – Oncology Embolization Agents

Embolic agents are used to treat select types of cancer, including hepatic metastases, hepatocellular carcinoma, and renal cell carcinoma. Embolization involves the occlusion of a vessel to halt the flow of blood to a tumor. This process creates ischemic conditions within the tumor results in tumor necrosis. Embolic agents may also be embedded with chemotherapeutic agents that are intended to slow or stop the growth of a tumor. An additional benefit of directly delivering drugs to a tumor that has been occluded is that this prevents the circulation of chemotherapeutic drugs through the body and decreases their side effects.

According to market data from LSI, global sales attributable to embolic agents for cancer treatment were approximately $543.5M in 2020. The market for these products is projected to increase at a CAGR of 4.2% to $566.5M in 2021.

Products included under LSI’s assessment of the global market for embolic agents for cancer treatment include PVA particles, liquid embolic agents, and embolic microspheres.

For more market data on the global oncology embolization agents market, as well as other medtech markets, visit LSI’s Medtech Pro platform.

Surgical Procedure Volumes – Heart Valve Surgeries in India

Life Science Intelligence tracks surgical procedure volumes across 37 countries and 12 major surgical markets (e.g. orthopedics, ENT, aesthetics). This week, our featured surgical procedure volume is for heart valve surgical procedures in India. Heart valve surgery is a necessary treatment for when heart valves function improperly. Valvular disease occurs when any of the valves of the heart become diseased or damaged due to factors such as infections, congenital or degenerative conditions. Depending on the severity of damage and symptoms, surgery may be used to either repair or replace the valve.

According to LSI’s Surgical Procedure Volumes database there were an estimated 30,700 valve surgeries performed in 2020 in India. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted cardiac surgeries globally due to restraints on the services and resources typically required for patients receiving cardiac surgery. Due to these restraints, procedure volumes for valve surgeries were negatively impacted. While a recovery in procedure volumes has begun to take place, many countries are still navigating and adapting to COVID. In 2021, an estimated 43,400 valve repair and replacement procedures are anticipated to be performed in India. 

Startup Spotlight

To see SentiAR’s presentation at the LSI Emerging Medtech Summit, click here.

SentiAR is a digital surgery startup developing augmented reality (AR) solutions for intraoperative use. The company’s flagship product CommandEP will be used to improve the success rate of the millions of cardiac ablation procedures that are performed annually.

Catheter ablation of arrhythmias is a complex and expensive procedure that requires significant resources to conduct. Despite requiring sophisticated catheter and navigation systems to perform cardiac ablation, success rates are approximately 60% after one year, with many patients requiring repeat procedures.

SentiAR is betting that its CommandEP software will improve the accuracy of cardiac ablation by allowing physicians to see a real-time model of the heart. CommandEP pulls real-time data from 3D electroanatomic mapping systems and catheters to create an anatomical and electrical hologram of a patient’s heart that “floats” above the operating space. According to CEO Berk Tas, this technology will allow physicians to focus on the procedure and reduce the cognitive load associated with managing the different technologies in the OR. The CommandEP platform currently operates on Microsoft’s Hololens hardware.

Figure 1: Example of SentiAR’s CommandEP in use

SentiAR has raised $15.1M in funding, with the most recent funding round being a Series A round that closed in April 2021.

Life Science Intelligence is proud to announce that Sense Biodetection will be a presenting at the 2022 Emerging Medtech Summit in Dana Point, California.

Healthcare has become increasingly focused on reducing costs and improving efficiency of care delivery. Sense Biodetection is helping healthcare providers achieve this with Veros – a handheld, all-in-one molecular diagnostic testing product.

Veros enables rapid PCR testing in an easy-to-use, single-use format. The platform eliminates the need for traditional hardware needed to perform PCR, bringing lab-quality results to clinicians and patients in 15 minutes. Sense Biodetection’s proclaims that their platform obtains results with just three easy steps: swab, swirl, and test. The company will initially rollout Veros for the detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. The platform has immediate benefits for hospitals, nursing centers, and urgent care facilities in need of instrument free point-of-care testing for COVID-19.

Figure 2: Sense Biodetection's Veros diagnostic

In September 2021, Sense Biodetection announced that it relocated its research and development team into a larger facility in Oxfordshire. According to Sense, the move will allow the company to accelerate the development of its testing portfolio for use with the Veros platform.

Sense Biodection has raised approximately $66.5M in total funding. In April 2021, the company closed a $50M Series B investment that will be used to advance commercialization of the Veros product and develop new products to expand the company’s portfolio of accessible, rapid molecular tests.

Preventable medical errors are a leading cause of death in the US. Founded in 2017, Activ Surgical’s mission to develop solutions that improve minimally invasive surgical systems and reduce surgical complications.

At the core of Activ’s products is ActivEdge, a surgical intelligence software powered by machine learning. ActivEdge aggregates surgical data to support intraoperative surgical decision making. The company’s first product, ActivSight, is a hardware agnostic imaging module that connects to endoscopic systems to augment intraoperative visual data. ActivSight augments traditional endoscopic imaging with near-infrared and real-time fluorescence imaging capabilities, granting surgeons new visual data that is intended to improve surgical outcomes. The device has received FDA 510(k) clearance.

Figure 3: Activ Surgical’s ActivSight Imaging Module

In June 2021, Activ Surgical announced the second product in its portfolio of digital surgery solutions – ActivInsights. This software will offer surgeons real-time tissue assessment through an AR overlay.

The company recently secured $45M in Series B funding on September 30^th, 2021. The investment will support the commercialization of the company’s digital surgery suite and pursue regulatory approval in Europe as the next step in the global launch of its software platform.