ODS Medical joins forces with two American Giants

ODS Medical will undertake within a few weeks the first official clinical trial which will allow it to test its surgical probe, a tool capable of discerning, in real time, cancerous tissue from healthy tissue in brain operated patients.

But before arriving there, she chose to surround herself well.

The company has just signed an agreement with an American medical equipment manufacturer whose identity it cannot reveal.

In addition to looking into the regulatory aspects surrounding clinical trials, this medical device giant will help the company establish a manufacturing process for its probe, said Christopher Kent, president of ODS Medical.

“If everything works as expected, then they will be responsible for marketing the device,” he adds.

But the aims of the company founded in 2015 do not stop there. It also seeks to improve the functions of its tool, in particular by enabling it to distinguish other types of cancerous tissue, such as those of cancer of the prostate.

This is where the second pact recently sealed by ODS finds its raison d’être. This involves an American specialist in medical robots whose identity, once again, is kept secret.

“The goal is to integrate our tool with their assisted surgery technology. “

– Christopher Kent, President of ODS Medical

“We also want to acquire data on different types of cancer in order to train our technology to better identify them,” he adds.

A PROBE FROM POLYTECHNIQUE

Designed by the team of engineer Frédéric Leblond at Polytechnique Montréal, the ODS surgical probe has already assisted neurosurgeons in 18 brain tumor ablation operations as part of a preliminary study.

In eight of these cases, it removed cancerous tissue that had escaped the doctor’s attention.

The probe, which looks like a simple pencil, combines different spectroscopic techniques to identify what it sees. It projects a light on the studied tissue, then records its behavior with a camera. The data is then analyzed by software that indicates, in a matter of seconds, what type of tissue you are entitled to.

Its success rate? About 97%. This means that the tissue that the probe qualifies as cancerous turns out to be healthy in only 3% of cases.

However, it will take several more years before the ODS probe finds its place in hospitals. If the results obtained during the first clinical study are positive, the company will carry out a second and final study during the year 2020.

“We hope to submit all of our results to the FDA in 2021”, indicates the president of the company. It is only after having obtained the approval of the American medical authority that ODS will be able to market its product.

By then, the business is expected to grow rapidly, according to Kent. “We plan to increase from 13 to 20 employees by the end of the year, then continue hiring over the next three years,” he said.

Read the article here