Presenting Kuopio Health members: AUVC Tech is aiming at the international market with a wound care device
Aiming at the international market with a wound care device
AUVC Tech Oy has developed a medical device aimed at wound care. The development work has continued for a few years and the prototype is now finished. The next goal is to obtain funding for introducing the device to the market in accordance with MD standards.
Ilkka Manner, one of the company’s founders and managing director, regrets that Finnish financers fail to see the opportunities health tech brings. The long time span in development caused by regulation does not yield quick profits.
– We have started looking abroad when it comes to financing. What this means is that if a financer requires, we may have to also establish our operations in a foreign country and maybe only retain our product development in Finland, Manner considers.
Nevertheless, he believes that the open Kuopio Health innovation ecosystem can help the company in attracting funding.
The company currently has six employees who work for the company alongside their day jobs.
Portable wound care
The wound care device developed by the company is based on ultraviolet light, more precisely UVC radiation. The small, portable device is battery-driven and includes a treatment pen used to treat wounds.
Manner explains that UVC light is already currently used for purposes such as keeping the bacterial population of water under control in drinking water vessels. In tissue, UVC rays kill viruses and antimicrobial resistant bacteria and promote wound healing.
The device can be particularly used in treating people with chronic wounds at inpatient facilities, in care services for older people and in home care. Manner points out that wound care is often difficult and wounds tend to be infected to some degree, which, in turn, prevents healing.
– Certain parties have already expressed an interest in our device, including Kuopio University Hospital and the city, Manner explains.
The ultimate goal is to introduce the device to the international market.
Joint PR activities
AUVC Tech has been a member of Kuopio Health for around a year. Ilkka Manner admits that the company has so far not been particularly active in participating in the network. The aim is to build networks at the local level and get more active once the company gets really off the ground.
Nevertheless, Manner believes that the open Kuopio Health innovation ecosystem could serve new, rising companies in many ways.
– Kuopio Health could bring more publicity to the local med tech and health tech startup genre, which could also attract international interest. We could also raise awareness of startups, for example by presenting a few companies at a time. The visibility achieved through the organisation could be better than the efforts of an individual company, Manner considers.