Medical devices firm Crospon wins SFA Innovator award


5 Mar 2010

Galway-based medical device research and development (R&D) company Crospon won the Innovator of the Year award at the SFA National Small Business awards at Trinity College Dublin last night.

Beating off competition from five other finalists in the category, Crospon has developed cutting-edge products largely through its close relationships with clinicians.

It recently spun out a new company, Janisys, to focus on the development of a drug-delivery platform that uses Hewlett-Packard’s inkjet printing technology to enable painless and controlled drug release from a patch applied to the skin.

Prior to that, Crospon secured €2 million in funding and received approval from the US Food and Drink Administration for its flagship gastroenterology product, the EndoFLIP Imaging System.

What is EndoFLIP?

EndoFLIP is designed to provide a more physiologically relevant diagnostic test for gastroesophageal reflux disease. It also has applications in gastrodiagnostics, bariatric surgery and in other hollow organs where the measurement of dimensions and function is important, the company says.

FDA approval means Crospon will be able to sell EndoFLIP in the US market. The move will also help Crospon to widen its use, especially in the area of bariatric surgery.

There are 16 people working at Crospon, with 70pc of the team involved in research and development, says CEO John O’Dea.

“We do file a lot of IP (intellectual property); we’ve probably filed 10 or 11 patents at this stage,” he adds. 

The company has a number of projects in the works, O’Dea says, and the team is looking at application into cardiology and pulmonology.

Photo: Caroline O’Dea and John O’Dea, CEO of Crospon