FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  June 1, 2006

GALVESTON, Texas – The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has signed a technology licensing agreement with a new Austin, Texas, based medical device start-up company, Apollo Endosurgery.

The licensed technologies were developed by the Apollo Group,  a collaboration of gastroenterologists including Drs. Jay Pasricha from UTMB, Anthony Kalloo and Sergey Kantsevoy of Johns Hopkins University, Christopher Gostout of the Mayo Clinic, Peter Cotton and Robert Hawes of the Medical University of South Carolina, and Sydney Chung of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The technologies licensed to the new company ultimately are expected to allow surgeons to perform minimally invasive procedures on a wide variety of common health problems by inserting specially designed endoscopes into a patient’s mouth and making a small incision in the stomach to gain access to the organs in the peritoneal cavity.  Because the stomach lining heals more quickly than does the skin, the devices are believed to be a less invasive means to gain entry to organs for a variety of procedures. The inventors hope that it will reduce patients’ pain, hospital stays and scarring. 

The specially designed scopes facilitate procedures known as transgastric surgeries, which have been successfully tested in animal models. They are used to take biopsies of organs, for fallopian tubal ligation and for gastric bypass surgery.

“These new techniques and instruments have great potential to help patients who have cancer or blockage of their gastrointestinal tract, or for those who are not good candidates for standard or laparoscopic surgery,” Pasricha said.  In addition, he noted, this technique is particularly advantageous for obese patients in that it eliminates the need to make incisions through abdominal wall fat layers as required with other surgeries.

Apollo Endosurgery is the first biomedical start-up company to be launched with initial funding from UTMB’s Technology Development Seed Fund established in 2005 by President John D. Stobo and subsidized by the Darrell H. Carney Technology Transfer Endowment. The endowment is named for the donor, a professor at UTMB who developed synthetic peptides for tissue regeneration, a technology which formed the basis of a UTMB spin-off company called Chrysalis Biotechnology. The fund is intended to help provide gap financing to newly formed businesses that are based on technology developed by UTMB faculty. UTMB, in turn, will share in the ownership of the company and royalties on product sales. “We wish this very promising venture great success and hope it is a harbinger of many more innovative biomedical firms that may be spawned by creative UTMB faculty members and the UTMB Technology Development Seed Fund,” Stobo said.

The UTMB Center for Technology Development took the lead in forming the new company and handling subsequent negotiations for the license agreement on behalf of all the institutions.

Apollo Endosurgery’s CEO is Dennis McWilliams, who co-founded the company with the universities and the Apollo Group.  Previously, McWilliams helped grow Chrysalis BioTechnology, from inception through its acquisition by a publicly traded company. Apollo Endosurgery is backed by PTV Sciences LP, a $70 million venture fund focusing on early stage investments in medical devices, biomaterials and life sciences, where McWilliams serves as an entrepreneur-in-residence.

For further information:

Karthika Perumal, Ph.D.
Assistant Director, Center for Technology Development
University of Texas Medical Branch
Phone:   409 772-7952; kaperuma@utmb.edu

P. Jay Pasricha, M.D.
Chief, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology
University of Texas Medical Branch
Phone: 409 747 3082 ; jpasrich@utmb.edu

Dennis L. McWilliams
CEO, Apollo Endosurgery Inc.
Phone (512) 228-4100 ; dennis@apolloendo.com

The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
Public Affairs Office
301 University Boulevard, Suite 3.102
Galveston, Texas 77555-0144
www.utmb.edu