Moving Health Ahead

Ev3, Inc., a medical device company located in Plymouth, manufactures the SpideRx embolic protection filter, which protects the brain from debris that is loosened while placing a stent in a carotid artery. “If the stent knocks away any calcifications or any other debris, the SpideRx catches it and prevents stroke,” says Jim Corbett, president and CEO of Ev3. Calcifications that are not caught could partially or completely block an artery, leading to stroke or other complications. “It’s a big, growing market—carotid stenting—that many people expect this year will be $259 million in market size, and it’ll grow to a billion dollars in market size worldwide over the next three to five years,” Corbett notes.

InstyMeds Corporation in Eden Prairie is delivering products that are meant to save time, for both patients and doctors. The company sells ATM-style medication dispensers, so you can pick up your prescription in your clinic or hospital lobby, rather than making a trip to the pharmacy.

The machines work like this: A doctor enters a prescription via an Internet-enabled program, which sends it to the InstyMeds dispenser. The dispenser verifies insurance coverage and co-pay amount; it also serves self-paying customers. At the dispenser, the patient enters his or her birth date and the prescription order number provided by their doctor, swipes a credit card or inserts cash, and then waits less than five minutes while the system triple-checks the medication. InstyMeds monitors the inventory for each machine remotely and ships new stock directly to medical clinic staff who refill the units themselves. If a patient has a question or encounters a problem, he or she can call for assistance using a telephone adjacent to the dispenser.

Some local device manufacturers are trying to improve the performance of existing technology. GN ReSound North America, a manufacturer of in-the-ear and behind-the-ear hearing aids in Bloomington, offers the ReSound Pulse, a new rechargeable hearing aid that reduces the “plugged-up” sound associated with some hearing aids. And by making it rechargeable, users won’t have to fumble with the tiny batteries that most hearing aids run on.

Growing Reputation

Medical device companies of all types are thriving in Minnesota. “Our average growth [in revenue] over the last seven years has been 25 percent a year,” Micromedics’ Miller says. “We’ve been a solid, high-growth company; we’ve been profitable for quite a while.”

Acquiring a complementary company is one way for a firm to grow. “The biggest thing that transformed [our] company this year was the acquisition of a California company called Laserscope,” says Ross Longhini, COO of American Medical Systems, a company specializing in urological and gynecological devices in Minnetonka. “Through this acquisition, we have launched a new product called Green Light HPS. This is a new laser therapy for treating men with enlarged prostates.”

Green Light is an improvement over the trans-urethral resection surgery traditionally used to treat some men with enlarged prostates. Using lasers to treat the prostate, Green Light HPS therapy can shorten or eliminate the length of time a patient needs a urinary catheter after the surgery. The treatment is less invasive—there is less blood loss than in the trans-urethral resection surgery, resulting in shorter hospital stays.