Medical Device Centre of Competence Opens!

Brian Goemans annouced that the Medical Device Centre of Competence (MDCoC) has been awarded funding by DST and is now officially accepting applications for funding. Their initial bias will be towards devices where prototypes have been built and there is a short time to market.

The funding is focussed on taking a product through to achieving CE marking as an end-point and they will not support requirements for working capital, sales forces, etc. They hope to assist with attracting funding to support those activities from the IDC or VC funders. Funding per project will lie in the range R500,000 to R1,000,000. The MDCoC Steering Committee is chaired by UCT's Prof. Kit Vaughan.

Brian Goemans can be contacted at 021 442 3625 to find out more about the funding. The Centre of Competence is housed within Cape Biotech Trust (one of the Regional Biotechnology Innovation Centres) in close proximity to UCT in Observatory.

Within a few years the CoC will need to attract 50% of its funding from sources other than DST and it is anticipated that they will achieve this through IDC, dti (SPII) and venture capital funding.

In return for the funding, the CoC will negotiate a royalty that will be set on a project by project basis - they will not be taking equity. As such, this opens up the opportunity for projects to be funded without the up-front formation of a company, which is advantageous for devices coming out of universities. A company structure will, however, need to be put in place during the course of the project as a requirement of achieving CE marking, which is the goal of the funding. It is excpected that their commercial partner SSEMThembu may be able to assist with this, by taking in new products into its already CE certified fold

Over and above acting as a funder, advisor and mentor in bringing medical devices to market, the CoC will also be involved in training, especially in the regulatory and entrepreneurship areas.

The MDCoC is busy establishing their web presence, but links will be provided from the Innovation Section of the RCIPS website, when their url is available.

Brian Goemans can also be contacted regarding participation in the Medical Device Special Interest Group, which will be run now as a CoC initiative. These industry / university / funder meetings are great networking opportunities, where key issues affecting the medical device industry are discussed