Cervical Stabilization Device (CSD)

Benjamin Booher ViaTechMD,
Scottsdale, AZ

ViaTechMD has invented and developed the first and only device-based treatment for various conditions known to contribute to preterm birth (PTB). PTB is a growing global healthcare crisis and is the leading cause of infant death and morbidity within the first months of life. Nearly 3,000 babies die each day as a consequence of PTB, which is also recognized as one of the most significant contributing factors in several lifelong crippling diseases including autism, cerebral palsy, blindness, deafness, various respiratory ailments, and other cognitive and learning disabilities.

The latest publication from WHO (2018) reports that in 2014, approximately 10.6 percent of all live births globally were preterm. Every year, an estimated 15 million babies are born preterm (before 37 completed weeks of gestation), and that number is rising. Socioeconomic consequences of PTB are estimated to exceed $52 billion each year.

ViaTechMD’s globally patented device, the Cervical Stabilization Device (CSD), offers a cost-effective, noninvasive, medication-free, preventative treatment designed to support a successful and natural birth by addressing a wide range of conditions known to contribute to PTB (such as cervical incompetence, known cases of organ and tissue compromise, multiple fetus pregnancies, late-in-life pregnancies, and others).

Successful CSD human fitment studies took place in December 2016. The generation 6 CSD, in its near-commercial form, were slated to undergo a second round of human fitment studies in July 2019, ahead of pivotal FDA clinical trials that are expected to commence in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Current treatments in prevention of PTB include cervical cerclage (a costly, high-risk, invasive surgical procedure) and use of progestins (natural or synthetic female hormones that present a number of serious risks particularly to male fetuses). Neither treatment is effective in reducing bearing forces acting upon the uterine and cervical tissues that are known to accelerate the birthing, effacement and dilation processes. And, after decades of practice, neither treatment has demonstrated proof of efficacy.

To date, ViaTechMD has been operated as a virtual company and has therefore been very capital efficient. The company has raised approximately $3.5 million in “friends and family” equity capital and is seeking additional equity capital to fund a full-time management team, finalize product development, establish manufacturing operations in partnership with Freudenberg Medical, and to conduct a pivotal FDA clinical trial.

Videos of the technology are available here  .

For more information, visit here  .


HONORABLE MENTIONS

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For more information, visit here  .


Body-on-a-Chip

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The Body-on-a-Chip platform is an accurate model of the structure and function of human organs such as the lungs, liver, heart, brain, etc. These micro-organs (organoids) are housed separately in small micro-reactors and connected by a microtube network that can feed them. It enables researchers to circulate candidate drugs, vaccines, or biologic agents or therapies between the different organs, as it would do in humans, to predict whether it is safe, effective, or toxic.

For more information, visit here  .

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