Medical device company Allium Medical Ltd. (TASE: ALMD) has reported a successful animal trial, testing the safety of its minimally invasive type II diabetes and obesity treatment. This is a new product in Allium's portfolio, which already sells gynecological and urologic products and has recently received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its treatment for emboli produced during catheterization procedures for opening the arteria carotis vessel.
Allium's share price rose 2% after the announcement and the company is traded at a NIS 70 million market cap. This new product is intended to be a minimally-invasive alternative to bariatric surgery. In Allium's procedure, an inserted sleeve provides a gastrectomy, achieved endoscopically - through the throat and without surgery.
Today, sleeve surgeries are becoming an accepted treatment for extreme obesity (BMI of over 35) and gradually also for diabetes patients with less severe obesity.
The sleeve inserted by Allium into the stomach and the small intestine prevents the absorption of sugars in the intestine. Allium is innovative in the sleeve's insertion method and the way it is anchored in the stomach. The trial includes safety tests in animals of the implant's endoscopic insertion and extraction method, and well as safety and anchoring efficacy over time. In addition, it demonstrated the system's efficacy in reducing caloric absorption during the monitoring period. The company intends to launch clinical trials in late 2017.
Launching sales in Korea
Allium's revenue from its gynecologic and urologic products in the first nine months of 2016 was NIS 5.5 million, a 55% rise from the corresponding period last year. This was primarily a result of initiating sales in Korea, in addition to Europe, Australia, South Africa and Israel. At the same time, revenue in this field is rising sluggishly, and it is not considered the company's main growth engine.
Allium's cardiovascular treatment will probably not be marketed by the company itself, and it has been working to commercialize it to an external entity for about 18 months, since it received US marketing approval; as time goes by, chances that this will turn into a remarkable deal grow ever more slim.
The company has a fourth product, which is aimed at replacing the heart's mitral valve - which is at present one of the hottest fields in medical devices.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 19, 2016
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2016