views
Bay Area startup develops pill to change endoscopies for millions — Business d’Or
Oakland, California. A Bay Area startup has developed a new pill that could change the way endoscopes work for millions of people. It is called
Endiatx. what is your name? Everything in this case.
“For us, this means looking inside the human body and understanding what went wrong,” said Endiatx CEO Torrey Smith. “TX is a medical term for treatment. We want to fix this.”
Smith founded a young startup four years ago. He’s aiming for a multi-billion dollar endoscopy business by building robotic tablet cameras that are operated remotely via G.I. Coffin. We want you to get cancer early without preparation, without sedatives, without recovery time, at a low cost and without hospital visits.
“With the Pill-Bot, our goal is to create a pill camera that works on Zoom calls and moves on its own that patients can be in their living room from any location. Physically go to the hospital.
Drink some water and call Zoom.
Swallow this little robot and your doctor will give you a virtual examination, virtually like an upper endoscopy,” said Smith. Sophisticated high-tech mini-swim eyeball months ahead of clinical trials on Mayo Clinic’s Institutional Review Board
“We basically have a small electric rotary motor with six holes. It’s like a small floating eyeball that can spray water in six directions.
It’s like a little Apollo command module with these little thrusters that move it in your stomach,” said Smith. Cadaver abdomen at the Mayo Clinic. According to Smith, the biggest challenge right now is improving agility and video clarity.
“Now any die-hard gamer will grab an X-Box controller and say this video game sucks, Torrey!
You need better optics and a wider field of view. You need to focus on short distances that fit your body. It needs more visual clarity,” said Smith.
Endiatx is in its 4th year of a 10-year journey. It also includes operations in East Bay, where the R&D team works around the clock to improve the software.
The FDA approval date is unknown, but Dr. Vivek Kumbhari, chair of the department of gastroenterology at the Mayo Clinic in Florida, is very excited.
“All of us who work in this field understand that this is the logical path we will eventually take,” said Dr. Kumbhari. “So I am looking forward to it.
I think the timeline from now to #1 in human studies is 18 months to 2 years. And this is just the beginning. It starts with the stomach, then moves on to other organ systems, and eventually some surgeries can be done with this little robotic pill.”
Smith agrees, he believes it could be the start of a whole new type of medicine.
“Until you actually manipulate the arm and attack it in real time where it is, sort of like a video game, Endiatx’s mission remains unfinished,” Smith said.
Business d’Or is a place of motivation for the business world. We are making the world’s most influential leaders and entrepreneurs who are driving change, remodeling organizations and developing a big impact on the world.
Originally published at https://businessdor.com on February 18, 2023.