Moray Medical is working to improve the quality of life for the millions suffering with leaky heart valves. Using our proprietary microfluidic robotics, more cardiologists can safely and cost-effectively treat the large number of patients who need mitral valve clip therapies.
Extending the Benefits of Heart Repair
Heart mitral valve repair has not reached the masses. Open-heart surgery, the historical standard of care, is highly invasive and too risky for the vast majority who would benefit. Transcatheter mitral valve procedures, with access through the veins, are minimally invasive, but are difficult to perform. However, low trauma therapy works! The Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Repair (TEER), or clip therapy, is rapidly becoming the new standard of care.
The 2018 COAPT trial shows that percutaneous interventions (with access through blood vessels) can be equally successful and is much less traumatic than open-heart surgery. Unfortunately, the complexity of the current mechanical instrumentation requires a long learning curve that prohibits mass adoption. A consequence only 2% of sufferers are treated and there are millions of new patients each year.
Empowering Cardiologists
Moray Medical is simplifying the percutaneous delivery of valve therapies for interventional cardiologists of all skill levels. Millions of patients will benefit from this cost-effective and easy-to-learn-and-use delivery system. A larger and more dispersed group of interventionalists will be able to successfully treat patients with leaking heart valves.
Today, when placing a valve clip, the delivery system is not intuitive. The mitral valve edge-to-edge procedure typically requires four hands and two highly skilled interventional doctors. Even the most elite teams are challenged. Implanting clips is time-consuming, expensive, and is generally performed in a few specialized urban centers.
Moray’s robotic system, with its digital user interface, enables a single hand to control the placement of a clip. Powered by microfluidics, the catheter system is fast, precise, and intuitive; yet comparable in size to existing manual systems, and costs less to manufacture.
Market
The structural heart market is one of the fastest growing medical-device fields. The market’s growth has accelerated with the rise of the Transcatheter Mitral Valve repair (TMVr) treatments, and more specifically Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Repair (TEER), which is already a multibillion-dollar market. Mitral regurgitation (MR), or leakage of the heart’s mitral valve, affects millions of people, but only a small percentage are treated. As technologies advance and accessibility to treatment goes up, the demand for mitral valve repairs will greatly increase.
Technology
Moray Medical’s initial product is the Coral™ System, which includes a reusable Driver Assembly, a single-use Clipper™ toolset, and a Trident™ input device. The Clipper™ toolset includes a cardiac-valve-therapy edge-to-edge clip implant that is pre-mounted on a single-use fluid-driven steerable delivery catheter. The Driver, a wireless capital-equipment unit about the size of a brick, incorporates software to direct movement of the steerable Clipper™ toolset in response to input from a user. With robotic coordination, augmented reality (AR) visualization, and Moray’s Submersion™ interface, the interventionist can position and orient the clip as easily as moving a cursor on a screen.
Team
Two MedTech professionals, an attorney and a scientist, with roots dating back to their university days, came together to form Moray Medical. Each pioneered surgical robotics: Mark Barrish functioned as a lead in intellectual property, and Phillip Laby, the scientist, developed core technologies that are commonplace in today’s surgical robotics. Moray Medical consists of dedicated and multi-talented personnel, advisers and investors with a deep understanding of transcatheter valve repair and other therapies, all supporting and developing Moray’s lifesaving technology.
News
Seed Financing for Moray Medical Rises to $5.7 Million
April 12, 2021 – Moray Medical announced it has closed a total of $5.7 million in seed financing. Investors, led by 415 Capital, include Berlin-based Heal Capital, the Angel Physicians Fund, and a number of prominent medtech entrepreneurs, such as Fred St. Goar, MD, inventor of the MitralClip™ transcatheter mitral valve repair system. Get more on the details from Moray Medical here, from TechEU here, and from Heal Capital here.
Moray Featured in MD+DI Online
February 1, 2021 – MD+DI spoke with Moray co-founder Mark Barrish about the company’s products, goals, and recent round of $3.3 million in seed money. Read the full story, “Robotics Startup Wants to Help More Doctors Fix Hearts.”
Moray Medical Secures $3.3 Million Seed Financing Led by 415 CAPITAL
January 22, 2021 – Moray Medical announced today that it has raised $3.3 million in seed funding led by 415 CAPITAL, which invested alongside a number of prominent medtech entrepreneurs. Moray is developing the Coral™ system, technology that promises to dramatically simplify a wide range of minimally-invasive cardiovascular interventions, and disrupt the rapidly growing transcatheter mitral valve repair market. Get more details from Moray Medical here, and from 415 Capital here.
Moray Featured by Ximedica
January 19, 2021 – Medical device development company Ximedica, Providence, RI, interviewed Moray Medical founders Mark Barrish and Phillip Laby for a feature on their company blog. Ximedica is a sponsor of Medtech Innovator, and their team mentors and advises many of the accelerator’s startups. Moray was one of the 5 top finalists out of 1,000 candidates in the 2020 Medtech Innovator accelerator cohort.
Moray Founder Shares Knowledge in Robotics Webinar
November 9, 2020 – The Cleveland Clinic showcased a webinar on “The Emerging Robotic Ecosystem,” discussing medical robotics commercialization hurdles in the COVID-19 era. CEOs and leaders from cutting-edge robotics startups, including Mark Barrish, CEO, Moray Medical, also shared future predictions for the field, and areas ripe for innovation via robotic technology. The group included Lisa Carmel, Vice President Strategy, Ximedica, Eric Davidson, President, Flexible Robotics, Auris, Luke Hares, Chief Technology Officer, CMR Surgical, and Philip Rackliffe, CEO, Centerline Biomedica. Find out more.
Moray Medical Featured in Medgadget Newsletter
October 28, 2020 – Mark Barrish, CEO of Moray Medical, gave an interview to Medgadget, a well-known source for international medical technology news, health care trends, and medical research. Reporter Conn Hastings elicited clear, precise answers to questions ranging from the basics of heart valve failure to the advantages of augmented reality in Moray’s surgical technology.
Moray Featured on MedTech Chat
October 19, 2020 – Co-founder Mark Barrish appeared on MedTech Chat with Tom Donnelly, to discuss how Moray Medical is bringing the benefits of robotics to structural heart repair. (Linked page includes both podcast audio and written transcript.)
Moray is one of 5 finalists in $500K MedTech Competition
September 25, 2020 – Moray Medical was selected as one of five finalists, from over 1,000 applicants, in the eighth annual industry accelerator competition managed by MedTech Innovator, the largest accelerator of medical devices in the world.
Virtual attendees of The MedTech Conference, the largest gathering of medtech industry leaders in North America, powered by AdvaMed, will vote online to choose the Grand Prize winner on Tuesday, October 6. The Grand Prize winner will take home a $350,000 non-dilutive cash prize and the title of MedTech Innovator 2020. The remaining four finalists will each receive a $25,000 cash prize, and several incubator space awards will be presented from JLABS. In total, $500,000 in prizes will be awarded.
MedTech Innovator received more than 1,000 applications from startups in 45 countries and 48 U.S. states for inclusion in its 2020 program. The five finalist companies are developing medical technology innovations in cardiology, pulmonology, mental health, and neurology. Read more here.
Moray Medical is honored to be chosen from a pool of 1000+ applicants by MedTech Innovator, the premier nonprofit accelerator in the medical technology industry, as one of 50 leading medtech startups transforming the healthcare industry.
Moray will participate in the 2020 Accelerator & Showcase program, a four-month event featuring the industry’s most transformative device, diagnostic, and digital health technologies from around the globe. As one of the selected up and coming startups, Moray will receive unparalleled visibility and access to leading manufacturers, providers, investors, and other industry stakeholders.
Gore Innovation Center collaboration with Moray Medical
February 26, 2020 –The Gore Innovation Center today announced a collaboration with Moray Medical, a 2-year-old startup developing precision automated delivery systems for endovascular procedures.
The collaboration is aimed at fundamentally improving the control and accuracy of minimally invasive interventional medical procedures.
Today, Moray Medical is leveraging the prototyping lab to deliver transformative breakthroughs at scale. The lab offers broad ideation, testing and manufacturing capabilities — including additive and subtractive manufacturing, wet chemistry, analytical tools, and more.
The Gore Innovation Center is an 11,000 square feet co-innovation space featuring a state-of-the-art prototyping lab. Startups, researchers, corporations and customers can collaborate with Gore innovators on difficult advanced materials challenges to create new business opportunities and value for all partners.
MORAY MEDICAL NAMED A ROSENMAN INNOVATOR
July 11, 2019 – An esteemed panel of subject matter experts, clinicians, and investors selected Moray Medical (then called Project Moray) as a Rosenman Innovator for its innovative technology and patient impact, digitizing the user interface of cardiac catheter systems to enable precise delivery of therapies within the beating hearts of millions of patients.
The UCSF Rosenman Institute, a health technology initiative at the University of California, San Francisco, provides selected startups with expertise and mentorship from stakeholders across the healthcare industry. Only 10 Rosenman Innovators are chosen per year. Eligible companies must be developing technologies in the medical device, diagnostics, and digital health spaces, and seeking funding from seed stage to Series A. More than 100 companies applied for the 2019 selection.
Moray Named One of “6 Best” Structural Heart Innovators
May 5, 2020 – CM Medical included Moray Medical’s technology in their “6 of the Best in Structural Heart” roundup. “They’ve made a robot which has less than 200 mechanical parts end to end, which is extremely unusual for the robotic medical device market.” Author James Christopher points out. “With leaders boasting companies like Intuitive and Accuray on their resumes, they also have the pedigree to back up the potential. So far Moray have managed to grow organically with their exceptional industry connections working in tandem with the innovative solution the product provides.”