MedTech Innovator Announces Phiex Technologies as Inaugural 2022 Vision Award Winner at WSGR Device Conference
Leading Startup Awarded $11,000 First Prize for its self-sterilizing packaging materials
LOS ANGELES, July 26, 2022 – MedTech Innovator, the premier global nonprofit accelerator in the medical technology industry, today announced that Phiex Technologies, a medical device company developing an interactive, self-sterilizing packaging material to replace third party sterilizers like EtO was selected as its 2022 Vision Award winner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati’s 29th Annual Medical Device Conference. The Vision Award recognizes visionary companies within the 2022 cohort, and its five finalists were chosen by their peers during the MedTech Innovator Summit.
Phiex Technologies provides a long-term, in-house solution in face of the major supply chain issues, delays, cost increases, and decreasing capacity caused by EPA’s regulation of ethylene oxide (EtO), which is used to sterilize 20B devices a year in the US. Their innovative material enables the med device’s packaging to self-sterilize the device. No additional capital equipment or pre-conditioning, such as humidity, heat, pressure, or a third party sterilizer is needed. As the 2022 Vision Award winner, Phiex Technoogies will receive an $11,000 non-dilutive cash prize and a profile in an upcoming issue of the MedTech Strategist.
“We are humbled to win MedTech Innovator’s 2022 Vision Award,” said CL Tian, CEO of Phiex Technologies. “Sterilization is facing unprecedented disruption, and this award is evidence of our industry’s appetite for innovation in an important area that has long been a bottleneck. Thanks to support of MedTech Innovator’s program and tremendous ecosystem, we are accelerating our mission to improve device time to market, profitability, and environmental stewardship.”
Five startups from the MedTech Innovator 2022 Cohort were selected as finalists for the Vision Award competition by a vote of the 175 attendees of the MedTech Innovator Summit where cohort CEO’s and MedTech Innovator partners voted for companies they would personally invest in, would want to work for, and possess admirable qualities – genuine, collaborative, and passionate. The finalists were given the opportunity to present before a panel of industry judges and the audience of WSGR’s conference, with over 400 attendees. This year’s Vision Award finalists – BrightUro, EvoEndo, Liquet Medical, Phiex Technologies, and Tympanogen – each had seven minutes to present their vision and to answer the judges’ questions. The judges included Joshua Magnuson, marketing manager, Fujikura; Tamir Meiri, director, Venture Investments, Johnson & Johnson; and Virginia Giddings, vice president Exploration, Edwards Lifesciences. The $25,000 prize purse was split amongst the finalists according to proportion of votes — with Phiex Technologies receiving the most votes and taking home an $11,000 cash prize.
“This is the 10th anniversary of our 1st competition at WSGR’s Medical Device Conference in 2013, and each year, the participating startups continue to impress us with their groundbreaking innovations that we diligently discover in ecosystems all across the globe,” said Paul Grand, CEO of MedTech Innovator. “It was terrific and timely to see this audience of industry leaders recognize Phiex’s powerful value proposition to fundamentally improve efficiency and safety for the multiple stakeholders involved in bringing life-changing devices to market.”
Prior to the Vision Award competition, MedTech Innovator hosted its annual exclusive Summit for this year’s cohort companies, selected from a pool of over 1,000 applicants during a highly-competitive six-month process. These world-class 54 early to mid-stage startups collaborated with MedTech Innovator’s 30 corporate partners to find solutions to common challenges and mechanisms to accelerate their technologies.
The Vision Award competition is the first of several competitions in MedTech Innovator’s 2022 program. All 54 companies will continue to work with MedTech Innovator and its ecosystem over the next four months during the virtual accelerator program. The program culminates with the MedTech Innovator Showcase Oct. 24 -26 in Boston at The MedTech Conference, powered by AdvaMed, with over 3,000 attendees. Five companies will be selected to compete for the live audience vote to determine the winner of the $350,000 grand prize and the title of 2022 MedTech Innovator. Additional awards will also be presented, including incubator spaces at JLABS. In total, more than $500,000 in cash prizes and incubator space will be awarded.
Since 2013, MedTech Innovator has reviewed more than 7,000 startups and graduated 421 companies that have gone on to raise more than $4.6B in follow-on funding and bring 130 products to the market. MedTech Innovator’s founding sponsors are Johnson & Johnson and RCT Ventures. Annual program sponsors include NIPRO Medical Corp., Olympus Medical Systems Group, Asahi Intecc, Becton Dickinson & Company, Edwards Lifesciences LLC, Dexcom, Fujikura Ltd., Jabil Healthcare, Nissan Chemical America Corporation, W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc., Alira Health, ERI Group, Figure Technologies, Greenlight Guru, Integrated Computer Solutions (ICS), Medmarc, Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium (MTEC), NAMSA, Oliver Healthcare Packaging, Proxima Clinical Research, Silicon Valley Bank, SMART-TRIAL, Syneos Health, Three Bridges Management & Consulting, TriNet, Velentium, and Veranex. The organization’s additional industry partners include AdvaMed, Pazanga Health Communications, MedTech Strategist, DeviceTalks, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
About MedTech Innovator
Based in Los Angeles, Calif., MedTech Innovator, the largest accelerator of medical device companies in the world and the premier nonprofit startup accelerator in the medical technology industry.[i] Its mission is to improve the lives of patients by accelerating the growth of companies that are transforming the healthcare system. MedTech Innovator matches healthcare industry leaders with innovative early-stage and emerging growth medtech companies for mentorship and support. For more information about MedTech Innovator, visit https://medtechinnovator.org/ and follow @MedTechAwards on Twitter. To receive industry insights and highlights about MedTech Innovator’s current and alumni participant companies, subscribe to its monthly newsletter.
[i] Gibbs, M., Johnson, B., Silva, B. A., & Berube, K. (2020, July 10). Q2 2020 Life Science Accelerators Insights Cipher Bio. Retrieved September 15, 2020, from https://www.cipherbio.com/blog/life-science-accelerators-insights/
