Contract developer Minnetronix Medical recently announced that it has developed and commercialized its own product, an expandable port for deep brain access called MindsEye.
The St. Paul-based company has been around since 1996. During those 26 years, Minnetronix has manufactured devices in four key technology segments: optical systems, radio frequency energy, stimulation and active wearables, and fluid and gas management. The company has experience developing products in most areas of medicine, from neurology to cardiology to gastroenterology to critical care, Matt Adams, Minnetronix’s general manager, said in an interview.
Until now, Minnetronix was known for developing products for other companies. Some of them include Medtronic, Abbott, United Therapeutics, Boston Scientific and Minerva Surgery.
In the past, these and other companies came to Minnestronix with product ideas and it conducted research and development on their behalf. Now, companies can still do that, but they can also come to Minnetronix to get a product that is completely off-the-shelf—conceived, designed, developed, manufactured, and passed through regulatory clearance.
“In the case of MindsEye, if you’re a company that has a commercial force that’s focused on the neurospace, we have a product that’s completely complete,” Adams said. “We can throw right into your sales bag and we’ll continue to work together to produce and improve it over time.”
This happens with Minnetronix Partner for MindsEye — Mizuho America — which will distribute the device in the US
Some forms of stroke and cancer cause lesions that are deep in the brain, and removing them can be a very invasive and dangerous process. Adams declares that MindsEye is the only expandable, minimally invasive deep brain access port on the market. In doing so, it addresses an unmet need in the neurological market.
The port provides deep brain access and visualization during operations to treat stroke and cancer. It removes lesions with “much less damage” to the brain than the more invasive ports that came before from companies like Medtronic and Boston Scientific, Adams said.
MindsEye won its FDA clearance in 2020 and is subject to reimbursement. Its first live human use cases were conducted in Tulane Medical Center by neurosurgeons Dr. Art Wang and Dr. Johnny Delashaw. Tulane already regularly uses the device in its neurosurgery department.
By developing MindsEye, Minnetronix can take its future partnerships “to a whole new level” because device companies now have the option of receiving a finished product, Adams said. The company plans to continue conceptualizing and developing more in-house products in the future.
The next in-house product in Minnetronix’s portfolio is Neurapheresis, which Adams describes as “a very new system that’s basically like dialysis for your cerebral spinal fluid.” The company recently completed two prospective multicenter U.S. clinical trials for the product, and Adams said Minnetronix is currently seeking a distribution partner for the device.
Photo Source: Minnetronix Medical