Micromedic Technologies Ltd. (TASE:MCTC) notified the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) yesterday that its subsidiary, Microvascular Eye Technology Ltd. (MET) successfully completed clinical trials in France of its MicroCan, a device that directly delivers therapeutic agents to the retinal blood vessel. The trials restored vision of a person suffering from retinal vein occlusion (RVO). Two of the three patients in the trial were treated with the device alone, without medication. The third patient, injected with a drug through the MicroCan, had vision restored to a functional level after three weeks. Micromedic owns 20% of MET.
MET’s MicroCan is a miniature syringe for injecting pharmaceuticals directly into hair thin veins. The company emphasizes that this was a single trial from which no statistical conclusions can be drawn. It added that the trial was not part of EU CE Mark regulatory procedures, which the company is now undergoing. However, the fact that it is possible to restore the sight of a patient suffering from RVO by using the MicroCan to inject a known drug is an important milestone for MET.
MET was founded by Dr. Nathanael Benhamou MD, Dr. Audrey Messas-Kaplan MD, and Dr. Michel Paques MD. Micromedic acquired 20% of the company for $500,000. Micromedic controlling shareholder David Solomon is chairman of MET. Micromedic has an option to increase its stake in MET, depending on the company achieving certain milestones.
MET believes that MicroCan will reach the market no later than 2006, and that it can be used to deliver drugs for treating a disease, which affects 300,000 people a year in the West.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on November 23, 2005