07 April 2021, Galway, Ireland | Signum Surgical, the medical technology company developing innovative solutions to treat colorectal diseases, today announces the appointment of Dr Bernard Collins as a Non-Executive Director of the Board.
Dr Collins is a leading expert in the medical technology sector and serves on the Board of Directors of several US and Irish life-science companies including, CroíValve, Aerogen, Atlantic Therapeutics and Vivasure Medical. A former Vice President of International Operations for Boston Scientific, where he served for 10 years, Dr Collins has held a number of senior executive positions in international life-science companies during his career, including at Baxter Healthcare.
Jeff Grainger, Chairman of Signum Surgical, commented: “We are delighted to welcome Bernard to the Board. As we continue to progress our regulatory and clinical programmes, Bernard brings a wealth of commercial experience and technical expertise at an important time for the company. We look forward to his contribution.”
Dr Bernard Collins, Non-Executive Director of Signum Surgical, commented: “I’m excited to join the Board of Signum Surgical and look forward to helping the team accelerate its regulatory and commercial objectives. I believe in Signum Surgical’s innovative BioHealx technology as an effective and viable treatment option for physicians, which has the potential to transform the lives of patients suffering from an anal fistula.”
Headquartered in Galway, Signum Surgical is focused on developing minimally invasive technologies to treat colorectal diseases, principally a condition known as anal fistula. This painful, and often recurring colorectal condition, which severely affects patients’ quality of life, involves the infection of an internal gland. Affecting one in 5,000 people worldwide1, patients and their physicians are dissatisfied with the efficacy of current treatment options, which are rarely successful, and can leave patients suffering with ongoing infections which require repeat procedures.
Developed in collaboration with expert colorectal surgeons, Signum Surgical’s proprietary BioHealxTM technology, which enables surgeons to treat anal fistula with a minimally invasive outpatient procedure, features a single use, bioabsorbable, implant that is designed to help seal the fistula tract and dissolve in the body after treatment. The single-operation approach is designed to promote healing, prevent reinfection, and protect patient continence.
ENDS
About Signum Surgical
Based in Galway, Ireland, Signum Surgical is focused on developing innovative and effective solutions to treat colorectal diseases, starting with anal fistula, a painful and debilitating condition that severely affects patients’ quality of life. Current treatments have failed to successfully address this condition. Signum Surgical has developed a minimally invasive technology that offers a breakthrough for these patients. Having explored gastrointestinal and colorectal care, and identified an unmet need of this patient population, Eoin Bambury and Moshe Zilversmit founded Signum Surgical in 2016 as a spin-out of the National University of Ireland BioInnovate programme.
In 2019, Signum Surgical secured €3.6 million through two grant funding awards. The grants included €2.3 million from the European Union Horizon 2020 SME Instrument, and €1.3 million from Ireland’s Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF). This followed a €2.6 million Series A investment round in 2016 which was led by Halo Business Angel Network’s MedTech Syndicate; with additional investment from Enterprise Ireland, the Western Development Commission, Rising Tide Europe and other angel investors.
For more information, please visit https://www.signumsurgical.com
About Anal Fistula
Anal fistula is a painful colorectal condition that affects one in 5,000 people.1 In most cases, patients will develop an anal fistula, due to an infected anal gland that, when left untreated will abscess and burrow through the patient’s sphincter muscle. Anal fistulas cause a host of unpleasant symptoms that hamper patients’ quality of life, such as swelling and discharge of blood or pus from the anus. Current standard of care treatments, including seton placement or fistulotomy surgery, involve the opening or cutting of the channel to reach the fistula, followed by draining or scraping and flushing out the infected tissue. These treatments are rarely successful and can result in inadequate or slow healing, a high risk of incontinence, and repeat procedures.
1 Ommer A et al: Clinical practice guideline: Cryptoglandular anal fistula. Dtsch Arztebl Int 2011; 108(42): 707–13.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51826318_Cryptoglandular_Anal_Fistulas
Media Contacts
FTI Consulting
Jonathan Neilan / Paddy Berkery / Aline Oliveira
Tel: +353 86 231 4135 / +353 86 602 5988 / +353 83 833 1644
