Upcoming CEO Pitch Series on Merge Medical Live

Private Member Live Interactive Sessions

and

Jul 18, 2024

Over the last 18 months the team at Merge Medical has been diligently searching for compelling healthcare-related startups and growth stage companies. We have found several companies that show significant promise. Merge Medical members have invested in a few of these companies already. Disclosures are available on individual member profiles within the forum.

Timing can play a crucial role in “the deal,” and we have information on a few opportunities where timing is particularly important.

We will hold the first CEO Pitch Series on Merge Medical Live August 1 at 6PM Central.

We will introduce three companies: TriFlo Cardiovascular, IDRelate and DiscGenics.

TriFlo Cardiovascular: A solution for the “forgotten valve”

Tricuspid regurgitation (TR) affects millions of elderly patients and is associated with a significant decrease of quality of life, increased hospitalizations, and impaired survival. Symptomatic severe TR is grossly under-treated and the current leading transcatheter technologies only address a limited segment of the patient population.

The Triflo Tricuspid Flow Optimizer is a minimally invasive valve specifically ideated for TR. The Optimizer works in tandem with the native valve regardless of its size and shape therefore treating a broader patient population.

First successful clinical cases have been completed indicating that the device not only reduces regurgitation, but also supports global cardiac recovery to improve function, exercise capacity, and quality of life.

Joining us on the call will be Frank Ahmann, Chief Business Officer of TriFlo Cardiovascular, to discuss initial clinical success, the Early Feasibility Study as well as developing collaborative, strategic and equity investment partnerships in South America (Brazil) and Europe (Germany).

We believe you’ll agree that owning a small piece of this company represents a compelling opportunity for Merge Medical members.

IDRelate: Solving for the Healthcare Data Problem

IDRelate has a powerful patented solution for a major problem in healthcare…bad data. Their Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) Web platform allows clients to identify and clean incorrect data within their enterprise data or ongoing business processes. They have a strong runway of client prospects and an early path to strong EBIDTA.

Despite being built on two decades of intellectual property, IDRelate was only recently formed to focus on the wide-scale commercialization of its DaaS platform.

Why Is this a problem?

We are aware of several examples in which large insurers and/or health systems have paid “millions” to data consultants to identify and fix data errors within their enterprise data. These efforts have failed. Major insurers think that they have X number of providers within their network, when in reality they have X minus 20-30%. The NPI database is updated annually, yet has thousands of errors.

Consider this example: a person’s full name is Robert Jackson Smith, DO. This individual may appear in databases as:

Robert J Smith, DO
R. Jackson Smith, DO
Jackson Smith, DO
Dr. Robert J Smith
Dr. R. Jackson Smith
Dr. Jackson Smith

And erroneously as:

Robert J Smith, MD
R. Jackson Smith, MD
Jackson Smith, MD

This example doesn’t even begin to touch the extent of possibilities for female physicians where marriage, divorce and hyphenated names are present.

If this provider’s name and or NPI number don’t match the database entry in question, the solution or services for which payment has been requested will be denied and/or delayed. Bad data can have a trickle down effect and numerous implications that effect an entities bottom line or ability to make informed decisions.

Who is IDRelate?

IDRelate is a recently formed startup encompassing the data and IP ownership of Blayne Legeaux of California.

Mr. Legeaux was an early director at Express Scripts and served as Senior Director Information Products (2011 – 2016). He was the developer and owner of MediCUBE, a web system for querying, analyzing, reporting and profiling practitioners, pharmacies, and patients utilizing prescription, medical, lab, diagnoses and procedures accessing multi-petabytes big data warehouses.

Express Scripts sold to Cigna in a deal closing for $54B on 12/20/2018. Beyond being a major beneficiary of that sale, Mr. Legeaux maintained ownership of MediCUBE as well as the data. Since that time Mr. Legeaux has maintained and grown this data set, and currently has close to 400 data points for more than 300 million adult Americans.

He developed a method to determine absolute identity through “vector” analysis of these data points. The master patent was granted in April of 2024. This, and 7 additional claims, cover “any computer application that includes lists of people, addresses, any related data and variations of all content processed by vectors”.

Mr. Legeaux and another business partner joined with two seasoned entrepreneurs in Memphis, TN to form IDRelate in 2024. Both of the Memphis entrepreneurs have extensive high level contacts within the US healthcare system and have built successful companies with lucrative exits.

Join us August 1 at 6PM Central for an exciting event with members of the corporate team at IDRelate. We believe you’ll agree that owning a small piece of this company represents a compelling opportunity for Merge Medical members.

Click to Register for the 8-1-24 CEO Pitch Event

DiscGenics: Pioneering Regenerative Therapies

Contrary to IDRelate, DiscGenics has been in existence for several years, having been formed in 2007. Building a potential “blockbuster” drug company and following the required FDA pathways takes years. For DiscGenics, this journey has included 14 different pre-clinical animal studies, with the first being published in 2017.

DiscGenics, Inc. is a privately held, late-stage clinical, biopharmaceutical company developing allogeneic, cell-based, regenerative therapies for musculoskeletal degeneration.

A recent publication in the International Journal of Spine Surgery presented very compelling results from the combined Phase I/Phase II, first-in-human clinical study of an allogeneic disc progenitor cell therapy (IDCT or rebonuputemcel) for painful lumbar degenerative disc disease (DDD).

Kevin T. Foley, MD, Chief Medical Officer of DiscGenics and Chairman of Semmes-Murphey Neurologic & Spine Institute stated: “Our early basic science studies, our demonstrated ability to safely use human cells in 14 different pre-clinical animal studies conducted in the U.S. and Japan, and recently, data from our first-in-human safety and patient-reported outcomes published in this IJSS manuscript,

all support the notion that this cell line has the potential to safely regenerate the intervertebral disc from the inside-out.”

This study was a FDA-allowed, prospective, randomized, double-blinded, vehicle- and placebo-controlled, multicenter study that included 60 patients with symptomatic, single-level lumbar DDD.

This a serious medical condition that affects 12-30% of U.S. adults at a given time and is estimated to cost the U.S. healthcare system over $100 billion each year, creating a considerable burden on the economy and individual patients.

The study met the primary safety and efficacy endpoints, showing that a single intradiscal injection of high-dose IDCT (9,000,000 cells/mL) safely increases disc volume and produces statistically significant, clinically meaningful improvements in back pain, disability, and quality of life out to 2 years post-injection in patients with lumbar disc degeneration.

In a one—two— punch, DiscGenics just released another press release 7/16/2024 announcing that they have

received FDA acceptance on Phase III clinical protocols for parallel pivotal and confirmatory trials.

They have also achieved alignment with FDA on Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC) aspects of the Phase III program. This study will have a two-year total duration with the first subjects being enrolled in Q4 2024.

If DiscGenics was a publicly traded company, this is the type of news that could send the stock price soaring!

Join us on August 1 for an exciting event with members of the corporate team at DiscGenics. We believe you’ll agree that owning a small piece of this company represents a compelling opportunity for Merge Medical members.