STOUGHTON, Mass., July 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- STD Med, Inc., a worldwide manufacturer and innovator of medical devices located in Stoughton, Massachusetts, is pleased to announce that one of its internally incubated medical device technologies, Spirus Medical, Inc., has been successfully acquired by Olympus Corporation. Spirus Medical, with its proprietary "rotate to advance technology" for diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal (GI) disorders, is the second exit for the medical device "hatchery" STD Med, which has incubated, developed and spun off four advanced medical device companies. STD Med's first company, Angiolink Corporation, developed a unique vascular closure system and was acquired by Medtronic in 2004. The second start up, Arthrosurface Inc. was organized in 2002, and has become a preferred joint sparing option using "HemiCAP®" technology to repair cartilage defects and damage in joints all over the body. Cardiosolutions Inc. has invented a new alternative in percutaneous mitral valve repair using its Percu-Pro System™ to deliver a proprietary implant into the heart to mitigate mitral regurgitation and is currently raising a second round of financing. STD Med employs a unique funding model, initially bootstrapping novel ideas and then financing with a combination of private investors and venture capital partners including Point Judith Capital and BioVentures Investors, which has invested in three of the STD Med portfolio companies, seeing profitable exits in two and tremendous upside in the third. With the exit of Spirus Medical, STD Med will be evaluating new concepts to start up its fifth company.
"The exit of our first company was an invaluable learning experience," said Steven Tallarida, President and CEO of Spirus Medical. "With Spirus Medical, we are now realizing that the combination of our internal development skills, along with the technical advantages and capital efficiencies of our OEM manufacturing business, allows us to pick good ideas and develop them cheaper and faster than the traditional model." Andrea Patisteas, Senior Executive Vice President of STD Med stated, "The combination of Spirus Medical's novel technology and STD Med's ability to assist in the development and manufacture of this product line has proven beneficial for both entities. It is this unique ability that makes the start-up model STD Med utilizes successful."
Spirus Medical has developed a family of revolutionary new medical devices that enables the physician to better access the gastrointestinal (GI) tract for the diagnosis and treatment of GI disorders. The company was started in 2005 by Jim Frassica and Bob Ailinger in conjunction with STD Med. "Our decision to partner with STD Med was a key element in the success of Spirus Medical. Working with STD Med allowed us to focus on the development and marketing aspects of our medical devices and utilize STD's support for a host of other services," said Chief Operating Officer, Bob Ailinger.
