Medical device start-up ETView Ltd. plans to raise $7-10 million in an IPO on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). The company value for the offering has not yet been set, nor have underwriters been chosen. ETView is a graduate of Misgav Technology Center.
ETView CMO Prof. Noam Gavriely and his son, Oren Gavriely, founded the company. Noam Gavriely previously founded and managed Karmel Medical Acoustic Technologies Ltd., which, developed acoustic monitors, including PulmoTrack, a stand-alone wheeze monitor that was the first acoustic monitor ever approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA); and OHK Medical Devices Ltd., which develops devices for the emergency treatment of critical patients and for orthopedic surgery.
A few months ago, ETView obtained FDA and European Medicines Agency (EMEA) marketing approval for its Tracheoscopic Ventilation Tube (TVT). The device has a video camera at the end, which enables doctors to insert the device, while precisely knowing its location in relation to the patient’s bronchial tubes and lungs. The TVT can also continuously monitor its location, thereby reducing the need for X-rays, the current way of keeping track of the location of breathing tubes.
Gavriely says, “30% of tracheotomies fail, which is liable to result in the halt of oxygen supply to the body within minutes.
ETView has already signed an agreement with an Italian distributor. The contract stipulates a minimum order of €3 million. The company will use most of the proceeds to build a marketing network and to upgrade TVT. The company has raised $3 million to date, mostly from private investors.
ETView recently got a strong boost for its marketing campaign when the TVT was shown on “ER”. Gavriely says, “The medical advisory team for the episode had seen our product and contacted us. In the episode, a doctors shouts, ‘Bring me the ETView stat!’, and even the product logo is shown. Calling for a product by its real name on a TV show is rare, and we didn’t pay a penny. When the tracheotomy was completed, the doctor looks at images from inside the lungs and says, ‘We reached the promised land.’ That’s as close as they came to saying that the product is from Israel.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on June 4, 2007
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