CathRx re-focuses resources on modular device manufacturing platform following the appointment of Jeff Goodman as Chief Executive Officer, cardiac catheter manufacturer CathRx Ltd (ASX: CXD) announced today that it will be refocusing the resources of the Company effective immediately. CathRx will focus its activities on its modular device manufacturing platform, which is uniquely suited to the design and development of robust and re-useable electrophysiology (EP) catheter devices. The Company already has stylets CE marked for re-use and, through its commercialisation program over the past 19 months, has identified this market niche for re-usable devices as an emerging market growth segment in the global EP catheter space. Re-useable products have the dual advantages of lowering the cost of the medical procedures significantly, while reducing the ecological burden of complex “single use and discard” medical products.

Bullets of the below message:

• Products to target high growth niche market for re-useable medical devices
• Has identified Pioneer Medical Devices of Germany as an initial strategic partner in this field with whom it has signed a “heads of agreement”
• Actively in discussions with additional partners for other major geographic regions
• Advanced Atrial Fibrillation ablation product pipeline work continues


As part of this process, the Company will be adding a strong new element to its existing product offering working with businesses that are actively seeking to participate in the reuse segment of the market alongside CathRx’s existing distributor networks. The basis of working relationships going forward will be to secure partners that have a
large  strategic vested interest in the catheter platform’s success. CathRx would expect to receive milestone payments and/or manufacturing supply contracts and royalties from these partnership agreements. Consistent with this new approach, CathRx has signed a heads of agreement with its existing German distributor, Pioneer Medical Devices, which will align the economic interests of the two businesses. Pioneer was founded in 2005 as a medical technology company focusing on the development, manufacture and reprocessing of innovative and complex medical devices.

Speaking about the agreement, CathRx CEO Mr Jeff Goodman said, “As one of the global innovators in re-useable medical devices, Pioneer has a deep understanding of the
potential for CathRx’s devices to disrupt and be successful in the existing EP catheter market and therefore places high value on our manufacturing platform technology.
The ability to re-process or re-use those products again and again is a unique offering that is in high demand across Pioneer’s key European markets and is emerging across all
major EP markets. We are not aware of any other firm, in Europe or globally, with a modular manufacturing platform technology robust enough to develop re-processable
products.”

He added, “CathRx’s strategy to partner with Pioneer will allow us to reduce the costs to commercialise and thus preserve our cash. Once a definitive agreement is formalised,
the strategic partnership with Pioneer will de-risk the sales and marketing program by providing access to an extensive sales and distribution network that would otherwise take time and money to build. We are actively pursuing similar types of relationships in other key geographic regions.” “While we are excited by this new product initiative, we remain very focused on retaining and accelerating our R&D interest in therapeutic solutions for the diagnosis and treatment of Atrial Fibrillation. We believe the devices and energy-delivery equipment we are developing remain an effective option for the treatment of this rapidly growing market.” Pioneer Managing Director, Robert Schrödel said, “We are excited by the prospect of building a strong strategic partnership with CathRx, which we believe can offer some of the world’s most advanced re-useable technologies in the field of electrophysiology today.

We are looking forward to formalising this agreement and building a long term partnership that will benefit both companies.”

Source CathRx