CMED article - good read
Gunbarrel, Colo., Medical Equipment Developer Enjoys Rapid Growth
Jul. 14 (Daily Camera/KRTBN)--The technological explosion, fueled by
almost daily advances, is dramatically evident in the biomedical
industry.
For evidence of this, you need look no further than Colorado MEDtech
in Gunbarrel. Colorado MEDtech designs and develops prototype
biomedical equipment for other companies, such as DuPont, which then
uses or resells the equipment.
Over the last two years, the company's growth has been nothing but
phenomenal. Mirroring the growth in the industry nationwide, Colorado
MEDtech just announced its own financial resources went from $28.2
million to $46 million in 1998, after growing from $19.1 million to
$28.2 million in 1997.
"The medical development market is fascinating because is quite large
and still growing rapidly," said John Astansoff, CEO of Colorado
MEDtech. "You look at major changes almost every day because of
breakthroughs in technology."
Colorado MEDtech employs around 350 people in Colorado. It was ranked
29th on this year's list of Boulder County's largest employers, as
compiled by the Daily Camera.
The company's latest fulfilled contract is the development of an HIV
and HCV (hepatitis C) blood detection system, produced for GenProbe,
Inc. The system, called TIGRIS, is expected to be used by American
blood banks. It will be available for placement when FDA approval is
optioned, with a target delivery date to blood banks of late 1999
anticipated.
TIGRIS, which will carry GenProbe's brand name, owes its genesis to
the minds of engineers at RELA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Colorado
MEDtech located in Longmont. TIGRIS, the latest of hundreds of
biomedical devices developed and produced by RELA over the last 22
years, is typical of the type of the high-tech, prototype systems
designed and developed by the MEDtech team of engineers.
Initially, GenProbe approached MEDtech with the idea--to develop a DNA
probe to detect HIV in the blood. MEDtech then went to work and
designed a prototype, and built several systems that were put through
rigorous testing before determining the product that was ready for
release. After two years, the completed system was announced available
to GenProbe. GenProbe has now entered into a five-year contract, worth
$20 million, to have MEDtech produce TIGRIS for it.
During the two-year production process, there were 50 to 100 people
working on TIGRIS at any one time. In the early prototype phase, people
were needed for the development of fluidic design that transports the
blood through the machine, the electronics to drive it, and the
writing, testing and verification of custom software.
"Software is very important," Atanasoff said. "In the medical
industry, you just can't afford the failure of the software at a
critical moment."
Colorado MEDtech was created in 1992, through a merger of RELA with
Cybermedics. In 1993, Atansoff was named CEO of the new company.
Another wholly-owned subsidiary of Colorado MEDtech is Erbtech
Engineering, located in Boulder and acquired in 1997, which produces
radio frequency amplifiers and power supplies for MRI systems used in
hospitals. The same year, it also acquired Novel Biomedical, Inc.,
located in Plymouth, Minn., which produces catheters designed as
minimally invasive divvies for diagnostic applications, drug delivery,
and surgery.
The company is also producing a proprietary product called FreshAir,
designed to convert air from the atmosphere into high-grade oxygen and
assist seriously ill patients dependent on oxygen.
A recent addition to the business is a program called Biomed Y2K,
initiated to address the potential problems of medical equipment
shutting down at the turn of the century.
"Essentially we contract with hospitals to analyze all their equipment,
" Atanasoff said. "We have a computer program that will take the
inventory of the hospital and load it into a database which has the
information for around 20,000 medical devices stored in it.
"Based on that, the computer will tell us that, one, there is no
problem, or two, yes there's a problem and here's the fix, or three, we
don't know," he said. "If we don't have that item in our database we'll
do remediation consulting, and maybe even redesign the particular
product."
Colorado MEDtech does research and development for about 20 to 30
customers a year, and manufactures products for 10 to 15 customers per
year. It has only about three significant competitors who are outsource
developers for original equipment manufacturers in the biomedical
industry on the same scale.
By Hope Petrie
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Visit Boulder News, the World Wide Web site of the Daily Camera, at
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(c) 1998, Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo. Distributed by Knight
Ridder/Tribune Business News. DD, END!A6?BO-MED-EQUIPMT
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Copyright (c) 1998
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