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Type | Public (SGX: B20 ) |
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Industry | Medical technology |
Founded | unknown |
Headquarters | Singapore |
Key people | Lu Yoh-Chie, Chairman and founding CEO; Mike Kleine, CEO |
Products | Medical devices |
Revenue | USD $37.8 Million (2006) |
Website | www.biosensors.com |
Biosensors International Group is a medical device company that specializes in developing, manufacturing and licensing technologies for use in interventional cardiology procedures and critical care. The company was listed on the Mainboard of the Singapore Exchange (SGX) in May 2005. The global headquarters of the company are located in Singapore, where the main manufacturing facilities and R&D centers are hosted. The European headquarters are in Morges, Switzerland; this Swiss office is also the Legal Manufacturer of BioMatrix, the current leading product of the company.
BioMatrix is a drug-eluting stent that utilizes proprietary technologies of Biosensors:
Biosensors has obtaitheark for this drug-eluting stent product in January 2008.
To enter the China market, Biosensors has set up a joint-venture with Hong Kong listed Shandong Weigao to market and distribute coronary stents in China. [1]
As one of the few companies with proprietary drug-eluting stent technology, Biosensors also has obtaining revenue through licensing its technologies to other medical device companies like Terumo, and specialty-stent providers like Devax, Inc. and Xtent, Inc.
Boston Scientific Corporation ("BSC"), incorporated in Delaware, is a biomedical/biotechnology engineering firm and multinational manufacturer of medical devices used in interventional medical specialties, including interventional radiology, interventional cardiology, peripheral interventions, neuromodulation, neurovascular intervention, electrophysiology, cardiac surgery, vascular surgery, endoscopy, oncology, urology and gynecology. Boston Scientific is widely known for the development of the Taxus Stent, a drug-eluting stent which is used to open clogged arteries. With the full acquisition of Cameron Health in June 2012, the company also became notable for offering a minimally invasive implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) which they call the EMBLEM subcutaneous implantable defibrillator (S-ICD).
Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is a minimally invasive non-surgical procedure used to treat narrowing of the coronary arteries of the heart found in coronary artery disease. The procedure is used to place and deploy coronary stents, a permanent wire-meshed tube, to open narrowed coronary arteries. PCI is considered 'non-surgical' as it uses a small hole in a peripheral artery (leg/arm) to gain access to the arterial system, an equivalent surgical procedure would involve the opening of the chest wall to gain access to the heart area. The term 'coronary angioplasty with stent' is synonymous with PCI. The procedure visualises the blood vessels via fluoroscopic imaging and contrast dyes. PCI is performed by an interventional cardiologists in a catheterization laboratory setting.
A drug-eluting stent (DES) is a thin tube that is used to treat narrowed arteries in medical procedures. It releases drugs to prevent the growth of scar tissue and reduce the risk of stent restenosis, which is the narrowing of the stented area of an artery after treatment. A drug-eluting stent is different from other types of stents because it has a coating that delivers medication directly to the arterial wall. A DES is often made of metal alloys and can be inserted into blocked or narrowed arteries through a catheter placed in a peripheral artery, such as in the arm or leg. DES is fully integrated with a catheter delivery system and is viewed as one integrated medical device.
Phosphorylcholine is the hydrophilic polar head group of some phospholipids, which is composed of a negatively charged phosphate bonded to a small, positively charged choline group. Phosphorylcholine is part of the platelet-activating factor; the phospholipid phosphatidylcholine and sphingomyelin, the only phospholipid of the membrane that is not built with a glycerol backbone. Treatment of cell membranes, like those of RBCs, by certain enzymes, like some phospholipase A2, renders the phosphorylcholine moiety exposed to the external aqueous phase, and thus accessible for recognition by the immune system. Antibodies against phosphorylcholine are naturally occurring autoantibodies that are created by CD5+/B-1 B cells and are referred to as non-pathogenic autoantibodies.
Terumo Corporation was founded in 1921 as Red Line Thermometer Corporation by a group of medical scientists led by Dr. Kitasato Shibasaburō to produce medical thermometers in Japan.
Zotarolimus is an immunosuppressant. It is a semi-synthetic derivative of sirolimus (rapamycin). It was designed for use in stents with phosphorylcholine as a carrier. Zotarolimus, or ABT-578, was originally used on Abbott's coronary stent platforms to reduce early inflammation and restenosis; however, Zotarolimus failed Abbott's primary endpoint to bring their stent/drug delivery system to market. The drug was sold/distributed to Medtronic for use on their stent platforms, which is the same drug they use today. Coronary stents reduce early complications and improve late clinical outcomes in patients needing interventional cardiology. The first human coronary stent implantation was first performed in 1986 by Puel et al. However, there are complications associated with stent use, development of thrombosis which impedes the efficiency of coronary stents, haemorrhagic and restenosis complications are problems associated with stents.
Nitinol biocompatibility is an important factor in biomedical applications. Nitinol (NiTi), which is formed by alloying nickel and titanium, is a shape-memory alloy with superelastic properties more similar to that of bone, when compared to stainless steel, another commonly used biomaterial. Biomedical applications that utilize nitinol include stents, heart valve tools, bone anchors, staples, septal defect devices and implants. It is a commonly used biomaterial especially in the development of stent technology.
A bare-metal stent is a stent made of thin, uncoated (bare) metal wire that has been formed into a mesh-like tube. The first stents licensed for use in cardiac arteries were bare metal – often 316L stainless steel. More recent "second generation" bare-metal stents have been made of cobalt chromium alloy. While plastic stents were first used to treat gastrointestinal conditions of the esophagus, gastroduodenum, biliary ducts, and colon, bare-metal stent advancements led to their use for these conditions starting in the 1990s.
ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was an American oncology company, now part of Takeda Oncology, which was founded in 1991 by Harvey J. Berger, M.D. and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ARIAD engaged in the discovery, development, and commercialization of medicines for cancer patients.
Biocompatibles International plc was a medical technology company in the field of drug-device combination products. It was acquired by BTG plc in 2010, which was, in turn, acquired by Boston Scientific in 2019.
A bioresorbable stent is a tube-like device (stent) that is used to open and widen clogged heart arteries and then dissolves or is absorbed by the body. It is made from a material that can release a drug to prevent scar tissue growth. It can also restore normal vessel function and avoid long-term complications of metal stents.
Umirolimus is an immunosuppressant, a macrocyclic lactone, a highly lipophilic derivative of sirolimus. This drug is proprietary to Biosensors International, which uses it in its own drug-eluting stents, and licenses it to partners such as Terumo.
Biotronik is a limited partnership multi-national cardiovascular biomedical research and technology company, headquartered in Berlin, Germany.
Alvimedica is a manufacturer of coronary stents, balloon catheters, diagnostic and guiding catheters. The company was founded in 2007 by Turkish businessmen and scientists living in Denmark and Sweden. The major intention of the company is investing in small and medium size medical device manufacturers to enable them to compete globally. The company made its first investment move by purchasing a medical device company called Nemed in Turkey in 2007. Following this, the company purchased an American company called In-Vivo, a manufacturer of angioplasty and angiography catheters, and one of the suppliers of Abbott Laboratories.
OrbusNeich Medical Group Holdings Limited (OrbusNeich) ( or-bəs-NEESH) is a company that designs, develops, manufactures and markets medical devices for the treatment of vascular diseases.
Genous is an endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) capture technology manufactured by OrbusNeich that promotes the accelerated natural healing of the vessel wall after stent implantation. The pro-healing technology has an antibody surface coating that captures circulating CD34+ endothelial progenitor cells to the device, forming a functional endothelial layer over the stent to protect against thrombus and minimize restenosis.
Intersect ENT, a subsidiary of Medtronic, is a health care equipment company based in Menlo Park, California. It manufactures drug-delivery devices used by Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) clinicians in the treatment of sinusitis. Intersect ENT is best known for developing the first bioabsorbable drug-eluting sinus stent PROPEL, which delivers anti-inflammatory medication directly to the sinuses. The company holds over 20 issued patents in the United States and more than 80 patents and patent applications worldwide. The company was named on the Forbes list of America's Most Promising Companies and was also on the Fierce 15 list of Most Promising Companies in 2013.
MicroPort is a multinational medical technology developer and manufacturer that is primarily headquartered in Shanghai, China. It mainly designs and produces medical devices for a range of fields including cardiology, interventional radiology, orthopedics, electrophysiology, and surgical management. MicroPort is considered one of the global Medtech Big 100 and has been consistently known as the leading spender in research and development by percentage of revenue.
Drug eluting implants encompass a wide range of bioactive implants that can be placed in or near a tissue to provide a controlled, sustained or on demand release of drug while overcoming barriers associated with traditional oral and intravenous drug administration, such as limited bioavailability, metabolism, and toxicity. These implants can be used to treat location-specific and surrounding illness and commonly use 3-D printing technologies to achieve individualized implants for patients.
Concept Medical Inc. (CMI) is a multinational medical devices company that develops and manufactures drug-eluting stents (DES) and drug-coated balloon (DCB), which are used in the treatment of coronary and peripheral artery diseases.