Envisioneering gets OK to sell first product
Envisioneering Medical Technologies, a medical-device company based in Overland, has the green light from regulators to sell its first product - a machine that Envisioneering claims has the potential to change the management of prostate disease.
The device, called TargetScan, marries 3-D ultrasound imaging and procedural capability. It generates ultrasound images from a transducer that moves on a track inside a probe.
The probe remains fixed in place in the rectum throughout a biopsy or treatment as it conveys energy that is reconstructed as a three-dimensional map of the prostate.
Robert G. Mills, the president of Envisioneering, said competing systems require the physician to move the internal image-generating probe to get multiple views during a procedure. The movement can shift the prostate gland.In some cases, the dislocation causes nerve damage that results in incontinence or impotence. Mills said the TargetScan reduces the risk of such complications.
The system, which will sell for about $70,000, includes an attachment for use in biopsies, disposable needles and a probe to implant radiation seeds or freeze diseased prostate tissue.
Mills said the device allows a doctor to precisely target diseased areas of the prostate. This targeting capability opens the potential for researchers to study whether isolating treatments in diseased areas of the prostate and preserving healthy gland tissue is as effective as more radical cancer treatments.
Hospitals, radiation oncologists and urologists are the target customers for the technology. Mills said the company has yet to sell its first system, but he's confident first-year demand will be strong.
"If we don't sell 100, we have missed the mark completely," he said. "To give you an idea, there are about 1.3 million (prostate) biopsies in the United States annually."
Jim Taylor, a businessman in St. Louis, conceived the idea for the moving transducer in an internal imaging probe. Taylor founded Envisioneering and brought in Mills a little more than three years ago.
Mills said he oversaw development of the technology and guided the successful application for Food and Drug Administration and Underwriters Laboratory approvals.
Mills said that shortly after he joined Envisioneering, he invited Bruce Olson to invest. Olson, also a businessman in St. Louis, became the principal investor and chairman.
Mills, a St. Louisan who has spent his career in the medical-device business, said he also has a large equity stake. Envisioneering bought out Taylor in a recapitalization.
Envisioneering Medical Technologies
Headquarters: 1982 Innerbelt Business Center Drive, Overland
Product: TargetScan, a device to improve the accuranct and outcomes of prostate disease diagnosis and treatment
Employees: 20
Management team: Bruce Olson, chairman; Robert Mills, president; Mark Crawford, chief financial officer
Reporter Judith VandeWater
E-mail: jvandewater@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8201
St. Louis Post Dispatch, February 25, 2005. Article by Judith Vandewater
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