Utah Innovation Fund Invests in Purgo Scientific

Utah Innovation Fund has announced its investment in Purgo Scientific, a Salt Lake City-based medical device company whose mission is to revolutionize treatment of surgical site infections through the development of an innovative delivery device that is designed to combat the biofilm infection crisis plaguing orthopedic surgery and other surgical applications. The company indicates that 300,000 surgery patients in the US are affected by surgical site infections annually.

Purgo is Utah Innovation Fund’s seventh investment to date out of its $30M state-backed fund. Specific investment details in Purgo Scientific were not disclosed. Utah Innovation Fund seed investments range between $200 and $400K.

Purgo's technology addresses biofilm-related infections. Biofilms form when bacteria develop a self-protecting, 3D structure in a self-produced matrix of extracellular polymeric substances. Once biofilms have formed, infections they cause become harder to treat by orders of magnitude. Affecting everyone from wounded soldiers to patients of routine orthopedic surgeries, some estimate biofilm-related infections claim as many lives annually as cancer.

“Most available solutions for surgical site infections are designed to fight planktonic bacteria, but biofilm-related infections are the bigger killer,” said Stan Oaks, Senior Associate at Utah Innovation Fund. “This is a huge pain point.”

“I’m confident that Purgo will save many lives,” said Co-Founder Dustin Williams. “It’s been an incredible journey so far thanks to our talented team of researchers, engineers, and business experts.” Williams directs the Bone and Biofilm Research Lab at the University of Utah, a lab that develops implant designs and researches the impact of biofilm on medical implants. the lab that developed Purgo’s flagship product, the Purgo Pouch. The candy bar-sized pouch is placed inside the wound and filled with antibiotics which steadily permeate until stubborn biofilm-related infections are eradicated. Upon removal, the pouch collapses to the size of a catheter tube and is removed gently from the patient’s body.

While testing the Pouch, the Purgo team discovered a second application for their invention–veterinary medicine. “Through our extensive safety and efficacy studies in animal models, we knew the Pouch worked extremely well in sheep,” explained Purgo Scientific CEO Mike Benjamin. “A robust voice of customer study revealed that there was a serious unmet need in the animal health sector as well, and we knew we could help. That’s when we founded Vetlen Advanced Veterinary Devices.”

Directed by former Zomedica Co-Founder, Stephanie Morley, Vetlen represents an advancement in veterinary medicine. “Vetlen Pouch provides an effective, direct and dynamic approach to treating surgical or injury sites,” said Brad Lingenfelter, DVM. “It simply works well.”

Utah Innovation Fund's Managing Director, Jerry Henley said about the investment, “We believe Purgo Scientific will add to the list of very successful companies that stem from universities in the state of Utah.”

For more information about Utah Innovation Fund visit the fund's website and read TechBuzz News' coverage about the fund's origin.