MRI Interventions, Inc. Goes Public

Memphis Business Journal by Michael Sheffield, Staff writer

Memphis company MRI Interventions officially launched its initial public offering this week.

The company makes and markets a minimally invasive neurosurgical system called ClearPoint, which uses MRI scanners to pinpoint designated areas in the brain for surgery. The device enables surgeons to perform surgeries while patients are in MRI scanners.

ClearPoint can be used for treatment of neurological disorders ranging from Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy to brain tumors, and possibly Alzheimer’s. Its stock was priced at $1 Tuesday and is trading Over the Counter. The ticker symbol is MRIC.

MRI Interventions sells the surgical hardware, which includes a workstation monitor, imaging coil and fixation frame (which keeps the patient stationary during surgery) for about $180,000, as well as “disposable” products that include a hand controller for surgical tools, a frame that holds and guides the tools and a “smart grid” for surgical entry planning for $7,300.

The company currently has ClearPoint running in 15 hospitals around the U.S., including Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and hospitals in Baltimore, Cleveland and New Haven, Conn.

The company had revenue of $1.5 million in 2012, and had revenue of nearly $1 million through the first quarter of 2012, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

While the company doesn’t have ClearPoint in any local hospitals, company CEO Kimble Jenkins said that could change as the products become more well known. There are more than 4,500 MRI machines in use in hospitals across the country, and each one, Jenkins said, could be used with ClearPoint.

“From an operational perspective, we’ve got a technology we believe is industry changing,” Jenkins said. “We thought it was time to go public and generate a broader awareness of the company.”

The company is also developing a similar product for use in cardiac surgeries called ClearTrace, which could be launched in the next two years, Jenkins said.

MRI Interventions currently employs 20 people, with its four-person executive team based in Memphis. The company’s products are developed and manufactured in Irvine, Calif. Previously known as SurgiVision Inc., the company was founded in 1998.

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