Urova Medical was founded in Memphis, TN with the goal of providing a novel solution to cure stress urinary incontinence safely, effectively, and conveniently. Urova Medical’s technology was developed by an undergraduate team of biomedical engineers at Johns Hopkins University. The implant was designed extensively under the mentorship of physicians from the Johns Hopkins Hospital, the number one urological center in the US. Urova Medical has been part of the Zeroto510 Accelerator program sponsored by Innova Fund and MB Ventures, both venture capital firms based in Memphis. SNNLive spoke with Vidhan Agrawal, COO and Co-Founder of Urova Medical at the Southeastern Medical Device Association (SEMDA) Conference 2013 in Atlanta, GA.
“Urova is developing a new surgical treatment for a condition called stress urinary incontinence, which is basically the involuntary leakage of urine during everyday activity in women. This includes coughing, playing, sneezing; and it effects a significant number of women in the US, that’s nearly 42 million women”, Mr. Agrawal begins, “actually it effects women right from maybe age 18 to up to 99, and these people get surgery for it all the time.” When asked about the market to treat this condition, he states, “well, the market is actually dominated by solutions like diapers and catheters, which help people maintain the condition, to live with it, rather than treat it.”
“We’ve developed a single incision device that slips under the mid-urethra and in a 10-minute quick office space procedure, your doctor can install it in you, and you’re free of the condition,” Mr. Agrawal explains. “We’re currently in doing pre-clinical testing to go into the 510k process and we expect to hopefully get clearance by 2016…the stress incontinence maintenance market, that’s diapers and catheters, is $17 billion in the US. Surgical treatments command a market of $2.4 billion and it is growing annually…we believe it will be reimbursable”, he goes on to say. For more information about Urova Medical, check out their website. SNNLive welcomes Vidhan Agrawal, COO and Co-Founder of Urova Medical.