Stimatix looks for partner, buyer as it eyes stoma market

Israel's Stimatix GI is moving toward getting its stoma device commercialized, and now the venture-backed firm is looking to partner up or get bought before jumping into the $2 billion market.

As Bloomberg reports, Stimatix's device, the AOS-C2000, is designed for patients with a stoma, an artificial opening that allows people with surgically removed colons to expel feces. Most patients simply attach an ostomy-bag to the hole, but Stimatix's tech allows for users to control when they defecate, averting the discomfort and embarrassment stoma patients often feel.

The device got FDA clearance in April and a CE mark in July. Once Stimatix--or its eventual owner--gets the AOS-C2000 commercialized, it'll compete for a share of the huge market controlled by just three companies, according to Bloomberg: The U.S.'s ConvaTec, U.K. company Hollister and Denmark's Coloplast are the only players in the stoma market right now.

Whether Stimatix gets bought or partners up remains to be seen, but the company is just the latest Israeli devicemaker to develop a novel tech and catch the eye of the Western industry. Israeli firms Peer Medical, Oridion Systems and Sync-Rx have all been acquired for millions over the past year, and outfits like Brainsway and Dune Medical Devices have hit the ground running, marketing novel technologies on their own.

As Medtronic ($MDT) Senior Vice President for Medicine and Technology Stephen Oesterle said last year, Israel has an excellent environment for med tech entrepreneurs, and he expects overseas investments and acquisitions to steadily increase.

- read the Bloomberg story