Intelligent Hospital Systems, a device company based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in Canada, has raised $7.6 million in equity and debt financing. The money, $3 million of which came from lead investor BDC Venture Capital, will be used to complete development and bring to market the company’s first product.
IH Systems’ Robotic Intra Venous Automation (RIVA) system is a self-contained unit for filling IV syringes and bags. By automating IV preparation, the system addresses safety issues for patients and pharmacy technicians, and improves efficiency and effectiveness in hospital pharmacies.
RIVA is designed to eliminate human involvement in the admixture-preparation process. As such, the device addresses current challenges being posed by a changing regulatory environment in the hospital-pharmacy market. RIVA will allow hospital pharmacies to compound sterile preparations in a United States Pharmacopeia 797 environment while outputting admixtures in either syringes or bags. The automation of repetitive and complex tasks reduces the incidence of errors and contamination.
In a statement announcing the financing, IH Systems CEO Kevin McGarry said the company hopes to begin installing RIVA systems in U.S. hospital pharmacies in early 2008.
Other investors in this latest financing include the Western Life Sciences Venture Fund and a group of investors assembled by Wellington West Capital, which invested $1 million and $1.1 million, respectively.
IH Systems was founded based on research conducted by a team at the St. Boniface Research Centre in the mid 1990s.