A device to control bleeding in brain surgery receives Phase 2 SBIR grant

A medical device developer got a big boost in its efforts to develop a surgical sealant for brain surgery. Endomedix received a $1.49 million Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research grant to help control bleeding for surgical procedures, according to a company statement. It received the grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

The funding will go toward safety studies, in vivo performance studies and developing an applicator device. The sealant is a hydrogel that includes two processed biocompatible polysaccharides. They are simultaneously mixed and sprayed onto a surgical site.

Typically, a Phase 2 SBIR grant doesn’t exceed $1 million over a two-year period.

The market value for sealants and related devices is expected to top $4.2 billion in 2018. But some factors that could impact the size of the market include the efforts to limit expensive hospital admissions, shift procedures to outpatient settings and reduce rates of re-admissions.

Endomedix has won six SBIR Phase I grants totaling more than $1.1 million to advance its sealants program.

The Newark medical device company is based at the Enterprise Development Center incubator at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.