TECHDEVICE CORPORATION ANNOUNCES TWO ADDITIONS TO ITS ENGINEERING TEAM
WATERTOWN, MA: January 5, 2009 – TechDevice Corporation is pleased to announce the additions of Stephen Grantz and John Murphy to its Project Development Engineering Team. Stephen and John will play significant roles in TechDevice’s continuing efforts to expand capacity and depth in the areas of balloon and wire development technology.
Steve comes to TechDevice with 30 years of experience in the medical device industry with specialized expertise in the areas of balloon and balloon catheter development. Steve spent 21 years at CR Bard as an R&D engineer, and more recently, Atrium Medical, Boston Scientific and HTP Meds. Steve holds several patents relating to balloon catheter and delivery systems.
John brings 15 years of industry experience to TechDevice and most recently served in a variety of roles at Accellent (formerly MedSource), with major focus in the areas of metals and guidewire development. In addition, John brings to TechDevice a wealth of knowledge in the areas of equipment design and manufacturing as well as GMP/ISO best practices. John is also a certified lean Six Sigma black belt.
Michael Brown, Vice President of Operations, says, “Steve and John add significant depth to our core balloon and guidewire businesses. We are very excited about the addition of such experienced and knowledgeable industry professionals. In an effort to better serve our customer base, we expect Steve and John to play integral roles in our efforts to expand and streamline our key, strategic balloon and wire businesses.”
TECHDEVICE CORPORATION AND YULEX CORPORATION SIGN AGREEMENT TO PRODUCE BALLOON CATHETER PRODUCTS
Multi-year agreement will provide the first catheter made with guayule latex to the medical industry
WATERTOWN, MA; March 20, 2007 – TechDevice Corp., a developer and manufacturer of medical balloon catheters and guidewires for a variety of endoscopy, urology and vascular applications has signed an exclusive, royalty-based agreement with the Yulex Corporation of Carlsbad, CA. The agreement allows TechDevice to manufacture balloon-catheter based products using Yulex® latex made from guayule latex. Yulex® latex is the world’s only biobased, commercial source of latex that is safe for people with Type I latex allergy.
“The demand for an alternative material that is superior in performance to synthetic latex products and does not pose serious health risks to the end-user is enormous,” says Gordon Brown, president of TechDevice Corporation.
TechDevice will use Yulex® latex for the development and manufacture of balloon catheters used for stone retrieval, vessel occlusion and thermodilution indications. Superior in physical, chemical and biological properties to high-end synthetic materials, Yulex® latex is more effective with better tensile strength than deproteinized tropical natural rubber latex and a safe alternative to tropical natural rubber latex materials.
“We are pleased to successfully conclude our product development efforts with TechDevice and move towards the commercial production of these critical medical devices,” says Jeffrey Martin, CEO of Yulex Corporation. “TechDevice’s expertise in prototyping and developing minimally invasive balloon technologies has made them a market leader.”
Currently, synthetic rubber latex is the only alternative material available for catheters safe for latex allergy sufferers; however, such manmade materials cannot match the elasticity, tensile strength and durability of biobased materials. Yulex® latex shares the same molecular composition as natural rubber latex, but without the proteins that cause latex allergy.
Yulex® latex is one of Yulex Corporation’s products derived from a U.S. desert plant called guayule. The plant also provides products for adhesives, and biofuels.
About TechDevice Corporation
TechDevice Corporation (www.techdevice.com, 617-972-5800), located in Watertown, MA, specializes in the design, manufacture and assembly of medical devices including balloon manufacture and finished balloon catheters as well as a broad range of finished and custom guidewires. This includes proven, new product design and development for OEM’S that prefer total outsourcing solutions. TechDevice offers superior quality systems, competitive pricing and a vertically integrated manufacturing facility that includes several particle and humidity controlled environments. TechDevice, a privately held company, was founded in 2001 and is ISO 13485:2003 certified and U.S. FDA registered.
About Yulex Corporation
Yulex (www.yulex.com) is a materials science company producing a U.S. source of NRGL derived from the desert plant known as guayule (why-YOU-lee). Yulex® latex is distributed exclusively through the leading international rubber latex distributor in the world; Centrotrade USA and its sister company Centrotrade Deutschland GmbH. The company, along with industrial strategic partners, is currently developing patented technology to extract other specialty chemicals and biofuels from the desert plant. Yulex, a privately-held company, was founded in 1997 and is based in Carlsbad, California with operations throughout the southwest U.S. and Australia.
For additional information, contact 617-972-5800 or
info@techdevice.com.
