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Meditech Pioneers New Tools for Monitoring, Diagnosing Diabetes

A San Diego startup company has hopes of making a major impact on the health care market, with products that offer noninvasive ways to screen for diabetes and perform daily glucose monitoring.

Freedom Meditech Inc. has its headquarters in San Diego and a research facility in Cleveland. The privately financed firm is seeking federal regulatory approval for the development and sale of its ophthalmic diabetes medical devices.

Formed in December 2006, the company is developing products that scan the eye with light to monitor and screen for diabetes. One Freedom Meditech product, a hand-held glucose monitoring device, is aimed at a $10 billion market worldwide.

Painless Glucose Monitoring

“An individual with diabetes does not have to prick their finger to test their blood sugar several times a day,” said President and CEO Craig Misrach.

Freedom Meditech’s device extracts glucose information from the eye.

“It is completely noninvasive,” he said. “We just have light that shines across the eye.’’

The self-administered glucose monitoring tools that are on the market today aren’t always accurate. International standards allow them to have error rates as high as 20 percent. In reality, rate of error can be much higher, said Misrach.

“In our preclinical studies to date, we have demonstrated a less than 8 percent error rate” with the Freedom Meditech device, he said.

“The promise is there for a much better level of accuracy and reliability,” said Dr. Daniel Einhorn, medical director of Scripps Whittier Diabetes Institute. “There are many variables that make current self-glucose monitoring fraught with error.”

Another of the company’s products screens for diabetes and is expected to reach the market ahead of the glucose monitoring device. Designed for use by eye-care professionals, the device has, in clinical studies, demonstrated its ability to detect diabetes without requiring blood to be drawn. The market is estimated at $2 billion worldwide.

“Freedom Meditech aims to revolutionize the way we screen for, diagnose and manage diabetes, through the development of technologies that identify and diagnose patients earlier, improve daily glycemic control, and reduce the economic and personal costs of long-term complications of the disease,” the company said in a prepared statement.

According to Misrach, the firm’s work plan is based on frugality and strong collaborations with more than a dozen product development and clinical research partners. Its proprietary technologies can identify the presence of the disease earlier, and once found, reduce the pain and inconvenience now required to maintain glycemic control.

Life Science Links Bring Company to SD

Diabetes complications heavily contribute to excess medical expenditures in the United States each year. Early detection and glucose control are important ways to reduce the costs associated with diabetes and medical complications, such as diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration and blindness, Misrach said.

He noted that his firm was named one of the 25 most intriguing startup companies in the world in the Nov. 23 issue of BusinessWeek magazine. He said he chose to place the company’s headquarters in San Diego because of the strong local life sciences community.

With an estimated 240 million people suffering from diabetes worldwide and 25 million in the U.S., there is a huge client base for improved diabetes testing devises, the CEO explained.

Sadie Sponsler, a registered dietitian with the Lemon Grove School District, has Type I diabetes. She monitors her glucose levels eight times each day. She likes the idea of a product that doesn’t require her to draw blood.

“The idea of this is fascinating,” she said. “I think it will allow for better diabetes control and management, with the ability to test more frequently with less pain. People have a fear of the finger prick.”

Game-Changing Technology

Unlike the daily testing device, Freedom Meditech’s diabetes screening product is for people with undiagnosed problems. It will allow eye-care professionals to identify a diabetes biomarker that is present an estimated five to seven years prior to typical symptomatic diagnosis.

Misrach hopes to have the screening device ready for sale in Europe in late 2011 and in the U.S. shortly thereafter.

“We are in a position to penetrate 20 percent of the U.S. optometry market,” he said. “This is all subject to FDA approval.”

So far, the company has not generated any revenue. “In the life sciences space, that is typical,” he said. “Companies like ours obtain capital from private investors or through grants: federal and state funding sources.”

Freedom Meditech now is raising $8 million for commercialization and sale of its screening product. To date, it has secured just over $3 million, he said.

Emmet Pierce is a freelance writer for the Business Journal.

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