Spotlight on Medovate – Safer injection for regional anaesthesia
Medovate Limited was created by Health Tech Enterprise (HTE) in 2017 to support development of innovation devices arising from within HTE’s NHS client network. Medovate is a company dedicated to the development and commercialisation of innovative medical technologies to provide a route to market for clinician-inspired medical device innovations.
HTE supported the early intellectual property protection, proof of concept development, and funding for Medovate’s first breakthrough technology, SAFIRA® (Safer Injection for Regional Anaesthesia), and facilitated the licensing arrangements with the intellectual property owner.
Read the interview with Stuart Thomson Vice President of Business Development at Medovate to find out more.
“Medovate operates a unique business model offering direct benefits to the UK’s health system and has a portfolio of clinical innovator inspired products across the medical specialities of anaesthesia, critical care, airway management and surgery. Applying a genuine collaborative approach with NHS clinical innovators, our team of specialists take innovative new device ideas with real potential through the whole development pathway, through to international market launch and beyond.
Our Technology
A prime example of this is our ground-breaking technology SAFIRA®, invented by four Anaesthestists at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust and developed in collaboration with Medovate. SAFIRA’s primary purpose is to transform regional anaesthesia procedures into a one-person procedure, putting control directly in the hands of the anaethestist.
A regional block procedure involves using injections to anaesthetise a specific area of the body (such as the leg or arm) by blocking the nerve sensations to provide pain relief during surgery without requiring a general anaesthetic. SAFIRA® also incorporates a built-in safety mechanism that automatically stops injection at a specified pressure threshold, helping to reduce the risk of patient nerve injury.
It has been reported that anaesthetic solutions are often injected at high pressure, which can lead to serious nerve damage in up to 1% of cases and transient nerve damage in up to 5% cases. SAFIRA can tackle these problems and help ensure that complications from nerve damage finally become a thing of the past.
Working with HTE
Health Tech Enterprise (HTE) supported the initial intellectual property protection of the SAFIRA® technology and funded early proof of concept development. With HTE’s ongoing support and advice, the hospital secured £80,000 in development funding from the Eastern Region’s Medtech Accelerator to continue developing the innovation. HTE also facilitated the intellectual property licence agreement for SAFIRA® between the hospital and Medovate Limited.
Outcomes
Having successfully launched the first company portfolio technology, SAFIRA®, in multiple international markets including Europe, the USA, Singapore, Australasia and the Middle East, Medovate is actively pursuing further regulatory approvals and distribution agreements for SAFIRA® for other key markets, whilst at the same time bringing its pipeline of further medical technologies through clinical trials, regulatory approvals and market launch.”
HTE’s expertise and support have been instrumental in the early development and patent protection of our SAFIRA® technology, enabling us to secure the manufacturing rights and take the technology through the product development pathway to obtain regulatory approvals and successfully launch SAFIRA® in multiple international markets.
