Medical technology firm moving to Kalamazoo, hopes to hire 100

by Alex Nixon | Kalamazoo Gazette
Tuesday April 01, 2008, 4:00 PM


KALAMAZOO -- A company with a novel medical device to treat brain tumors is
moving to Kalamazoo.

Monteris Medical Inc., of Winnipeg, Canada, will begin testing its treatment on
humans in May at two Cleveland hospitals.

And it hopes to have clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to
market the device by the end of this year, said James W. Duncan, chief executive
officer of Monteris.

Should that clearance be granted, Duncan said today, the company would begin
manufacturing its technology - a minimally invasive, MRI-guided laser treatment
system - in Kalamazoo soon after.

"By early next year we'll begin aggressively setting up manufacturing," Duncan
said.

The company was lured in part by an investment by Southwest Michigan First's $50
million Life Sciences Fund.

"Our requirements for a community with a strong life science infrastructure,
available talent pool, quality consultants, reasonable cost of living, proximity
to other medical device companies and centralized geographical location made
Kalamazoo one of the best locations," Duncan said.

The company could eventually employ 100 workers in management, sales and
manufacturing Kalamazoo, Duncan said. Research and development activities will
remain in Canada, where the technology was originally developed.

"The addition of Monteris Medical to our portfolio adds yet another dimension to
our growing life-science cluster here in southwest Michigan," said Ron Kitchens,
Southwest Michigan First chief executive officer.

It is a unique treatment option, he said, because surgeons can view real-time
MRI images of the tumor as they work as well as a "heat map" of the area being
treated by the laser.

There are approximately 94,000 patients with brain tumors each year who could
benefit from the treatment, he said.

"If everything that goes as expected a doctor would be able to treat a
normal-size tumor in less than an hour versus several hours for (traditional)
surgery," he said.


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