Xenia Venture Capital Ltd. (TASE:XENA) portfolio company NeatStitch Ltd. has obtained EU CE Mark certification to sell its NeatClose automated suturing product for laparoscopic procedures. The company has signed distribution agreements in the UK and the Netherlands, and received its first orders for several hundred units in the UK.
NeatStitch obtained US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) marketing approval for the NeatClose in 2007, and it also has marketing approval in Israel.
NeatStitch has set up a US distribution network with local distributors through Virginia Biosciences Commercialization Center, the technology commercialization arm of Virginia Life Sciences Investments (VLSI), a shareholder in the company.
NeatClose automatically internally sutures tissues in the stomach wall during minimally invasive laparoscopic surgical procedures, in which surgical devices are inserted into the body cavity through small cuts. Even though the procedure involves only small cuts, these still have to by manually sutured by an experienced surgeon, and can take 10-12 minutes. NeatStitch’s device can simplify the procedure and shorten it by several minutes.
NeatStitch was founded at the Xenia incubator in 2004, and graduated two years later. It is run by CEO Baruch Marganit. Xenia owns 29.3% of the company.
Xenia's share price rose 3.8% by midday to NIS 2.30, giving a market cap of NIS 51 million.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 3, 2010
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