AFR write up on CDXLocally listed small cap medtech company...

AFR write up on CDX

Locally listed small cap medtech company CardieX has struck a three-year deal with a Chinese manufacturer to develop and commercialise a non-invasive central blood pressure monitoring device.CardieX is run by the co-founder of both electricity company NRG Asia-Pacific and Boost Mobile USA, Craig Cooper, who also has a long history in venture capital and was a founding partner in the SoftBank Capital Technology Fund.The medtech business has formed a commercial agreement between its subsidiary ATCOR and Chinese manufacturer Andon, which is one of China's largest manufacturers of home-use medical devices.Speaking to The Australian Financial Review, Mr Cooper said cardiovascular disease was the biggest killer of people in the US and was also the top comorbidity for people who contract COVID-19.He said these two factors were a "perfect storm", providing a tailwind for the eventual adoption of its new device, which measures central blood pressure, arterial stiffness and arterial inflammation with wearable at-home devices, rather than the traditional method requiring a stent in the aortic valve.Running is a passion for Craig Cooper."We're putting a Ferrari in a Ford and providing specialist level diagnostics available to consumers," Mr Cooper said."The hypertensive market is huge. About half the adult population in the US is now considered hypertensive ... The other major market is Alzheimer’s and dementia because vascular health is becoming so critical and arterial stiffness and inflammation are big indicators for that."Our devices can tell you if you need to be in a treatment program for hypertension, even when traditional blood pressure monitors suggest you don't."And then we'll be targeting the connected-device health market, so the people buying Garmin or Apple watches and Fitbits who want better data.Mr Cooper expects to have the products on the market within 12 months. Andon will be responsible for getting regulatory approvals in all target markets, and Mr Cooper is hopeful that applications with the US Food and Drug Administration and other global regulatory bodies will be filed by January next year.It will be the first new product for the company since 2012.The announcement of the partnership with Adnon pushed the company's shares up 1.75 per cent to 5.8¢ in late trade on Monday.CardieX was incorporated 25 years ago and went public on the ASX in 2005. Of its 24 staff, seven have been with the company since before it listed.Mr Cooper, who led investments in companies such as BuzzFeed, The Huffington Post and Warby Parker during his time as a venture capitalist, took on the top job at CardieX in December 2017 after he was introduced by financial services firm Taylor Collison."They had been a long-suffering shareholder and I was introduced because the company had this key piece of technology that we thought could be leveraged into a much wider channel and had a great market opportunity," he said."That was the foundation of my passion to get into this."I came from a very different background, from VC... which was ruthlessly driven toward creating efficiencies and driving value. When I held my first team meeting half of them sighed a breath of relief and the other half were holding their breath. You can guess which half survived."CardieX's revenue is mostly generated via clinical trial services and sales of its XCEL central pressure waveform device, which measures a person's central blood pressure.In the June quarter the company recorded $1.54 million of revenue and $5.1 million for the preceding 12 months.Mr Cooper said the company's expansion into wearables and at-home non-invasive monitoring devices would be the growth engine of the business."The industry we're in is archaic. It's like Xerox or Kodak. It's been failing to innovate," he said."We will have new revenue streams hitting [the market] in 2021 and 2022 onwards, taking us from a two product company to a six to seven product company over the course of the next two years, with multiple revenue streams across subscriptions, software-as-a-service, direct-to-consumer sales and wearables."