Chitogel Limited, a New Zealand-owned and Wellington-based medical device company, has announced to its shareholders the signing of a major investment contract with a US-based organisation, McGeever, LLC, headquartered in North Carolina. This investment, made through McGeever’s subsidiary, LCO Capital, LLC and totalling US$6.58 million over 3 years, will be used to establish a dedicated medical sales team across the United States through McGeever’s commercial execution arm, SalesForce4Hire, LLC. The investment is aimed at driving the expansion and growth of Chitogel’s first-to-market hydrogel product for post-operative use following endoscopic sinus surgery.
In addition to this major investment, Chitogel Limited is launching a Series A Capital Raise of NZ$8m. This funding will be instrumental in delivering their second-to-market Otologic Kit for middle ear corrective surgery; advancing new product developments for laminectomy and abdominal surgery; relocating their manufacturing plant to increase capacity; and ensuring sufficient working capital.
Chitogel Limited CEO, Edward Lamb, expressed his enthusiasm for the milestone, stating, “This is a great moment for a NZ owned and based company to establish its own medical sales team in the biggest global market, the United States.” He further added, “Chitogel has been distributed in the US since 2019, so this is a natural progression to enable expansion of customer use. I would like to personally thank Chitogel staff and the investors who have patiently supported us on this journey.”
McGeever, LLC invests in a portfolio of companies aligned to the core purpose of improving the value of their investments through commercial execution. It is a highly experienced medical device commercialisation group with a proven track record of successfully launching and driving rapid sales growth for multinational companies and startups in the US market over the past 20 years.
Recent clinical studies have shown that severe chronic rhinosinusitis patients treated with Chitogel demonstrated significantly lower rates of revision surgery (Barber 2024). Chitogel also promotes a healthy microbiome which decreases postoperative infections (Megow 2022), whilst it is also rapidly haemostatic immediately after surgery and prevents adhesion formation, addressing two of the most common complications of sinus surgery (Valentine 2010).
Chitogel offers unique patient benefits by promoting healthy bacteria in the sinuses leading to improved sinus health and helping patients feel better and stay healthier over the long term. With a trend of reduced health system costs and increase efficiencies, Chitogel has shown a clear reduction in the need for follow up consults and revision surgeries. Given these flow-on benefits and cost savings, Chitogel is viewed as an investment, with the long-term cost-savings and improvements to patient welfare far outweighing the initial cost of the product.
Source: Scoop Media
