Though med-tech firms often have great product ideas, many newer ones don’t have the money or employees to bring them to market. That’s where Devicix comes in.
“Our core business is designing medical devices for other companies to sell,” says Peter DeLange, the Eden Prairie company’s CEO. Devicix’s 24 employees include electrical, mechanical, software, and biomedical engineers. In 2007, the company’s revenue was $1.5 million; this year, DeLange hopes to bring in $3 million in revenue. Next year, he expects Devicix to hit $5 million in revenue and expand its space by another 5,000 square feet.
The company was founded in 2004 by DeLange and three colleagues at Acist Medical Systems, an Eden Prairie company that creates injection systems for delivering contrast material to patients undergoing cardiovascular angiography. Working independently from Acist, the group had successfully bid to develop an injection device for Disc Dynamics, an Eden Prairie firm that, among other products, makes an injectable polymer substitute for damaged spinal discs. The injection system was a success, and the group decided to strike out on its own.
Devicix works in a variety of areas. In cardiology, it’s developing catheters, injection systems, and delivery systems for different fluid types. In orthopedics, Devicix continues to support Disc Dynamics’ implant injection project, which is still navigating the regulatory process. Its engineers are also designing spinal implants that initiate natural spinal fusion, and a device that helps trauma surgeons place bone-support rods.
Devicix also is developing dental products for OrthoAccel, a Texas start-up that hopes to market a product that will reduce the amount of time patients wear braces. “We also do a variety of general hospital-equipment design, and we’re good at medical device software development, including electronics, software, and electromechanical systems,” DeLange says.
In addition to its design and prototyping services, Devicix also can research patent materials. Once a client has a workable prototype, Devicix will “work with customers to figure out the best way to manufacture their product,” DeLange says. Most of the products Devicix helps design are made locally.
“Maybe a surgeon has an idea, a businessperson has a business perspective, but neither of them necessarily knows how to take that idea and turn it into a product that’s ready to go to market,” DeLange says.
