Bruce Rappaport Institute of Medical Sciences at the Technion Faculty of Medicine dean Dr. Rafael Beyar has revealed that he and other former successful InStent entrepreneurs are about to complete a medical breakthrough potentially even greater than InStent's.
In a rare interview, Beyar reveals that his team has developed a semi-automatic, remote controlled robotic cardiac catheterization system. The purpose is to eliminate radiation from the catheterization to which the medical staff are also exposed.
Beyar, who owned 10% of InStent, owns 25% of Navicath, the company developing the robot. His partners are his brother, Dr. Mordechay (Motti) Beyar and an engineer, Oren Globerman and TEIC (Technological Incubator founded by the Technion Research and Development Foundation Ltd. (formerly The Technion Entrepreneurial Incubator Co.)). Beyar declined to reveal Navicath's other entrepreneurs at their request.
Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) acquired InStent in 1996 for $250 million in one of the largest sales of an Israeli start-up to a foreign corporation.
Beyar said the catheterization robots could be ready for commercial marketing within two years. "I think the commercial potential is much greater than InStent's."
Robots are already being tested for cardiac surgery in several places worldwide, but this is the first attempt to use them for catheterization.
Beyar said he unveiled the new device at a catheterization conference in the US last September. He estimated the US market for the device at $250 million a year.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on October 15, 2003