Micell Gets $15M from St. Jude
Raleigh's Micell Technologies has drawn the attention--and a $15 million investment--from global medical technologies giant St. Jude Medical.
Micell, which employs 10 people, is developing coating systems that can be used to deliver drugs via medical devices such as the wire-mesh stents now in routine use to open clogged arteries in the heart.
Micell's coating has the potential to deliver a precise dose of medicine from the stent, to keep those newly re-opened arteries from getting clogged again.
The 8-year-old firm believes its coating may be safer than competitors' when used on a stent made by a collaborator--Maxcor, a subsidiary of Opto Circuits India.
Arthur Benvenuto, Micell's chairman and CEO, said the buy-in from St. Jude could "expand the use of our coating technology into potentially new applications for medical device products."
Micell is among an expanding base of companies developing advanced medical devices and technologies in North Carolina.