Through the Cords, a US-based intubation tool manufacturer spin-in from University of Utah, disclosed more than $975,000 in equity and grant funding on Thursday.
The total includes $600,000 of equity recently secured from unnamed investors, in addition to $300,000 in grants from the governor of Utah’s Office of Economic Development.
Through the Cords previously secured $40,000 in prize funding from the university-run 2016 Utah Entrepreneur Challenge and $10,000 from the university’s health-focused Bench to Bedside competition.
Founded in 2013, Through the Cords is developing devices for intubation, the surgical insertion of an artificial tube often used to improve respiratory ventilation through the patient’s windpipe.
The devices will be marketed as more cost-effective and precise than existing alternative. They come with a colour-coded coating to help clinicians measure how deep the tube has been inserted.
Through the Cords’ approach could be particularly useful in developing countries, where difficulties implementing conventional intubation methods can lead to death during emergency operations.
The company was spun into University of Utah in 2015 to gain access to the university’s resources. It builds on research led by Sean Runnels, an assistant professor in clinical anaesthesiology at Utah’s School of Medicine.
Runnels was assisted by students from Utah’s Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute, together with university commercialisation arm Center for Technology and Venture Commercialization.
He said: “Design pressures to make medical devices that are easy to use, cost-effective and simple have not existed in the USA until recently.
“The established medical device industry has been rewarded for designing highly calibrated, highly complex and very expensive medical devices up till now.”
