Medtech Innovator, a global nonprofit accelerator in the medical technology industry, has revealed that Inochi Care, a company developing a multitherapeutic wound healing technology, has been selected as the Travel Award winner at the organization’s inaugural Japan pitch event in Tokyo. Inochi Care now advances to the 2019 Medtech Innovator Asia Pacific Showcase Program, featuring 20 best-in-class startups from the Asia Pacific region developing transformative medical solutions to improve the lives of patients.
 
Medtech Innovator launched its Asia Pacific Program this year in partnership with Asia Pacific Medical Technology Association (APACMed) to accelerate the growth of the most promising medical device, digital health, and diagnostic startups in the region. Pitch events will also be held this month in Sydney, Singapore, and Shanghai.
 
Inochi Care’s technology provides three times faster chronic wound healing at one-fifth the cost, with the goal of increasing accessibility and preventing lifelong disabilities. As the Travel Award winner, Inochi Care’s travel expenses will be covered to Singapore where the company will present in the Medtech Innovator Showcase at the fifth Annual Asia Pacific Medtech Forum October 8 and 9. The company will receive mentoring from Medtech Innovator’s Asia Pacific corporate partners including Johnson & Johnson, Amgen, Boston Scientific, Johnan, Olympus Medical Systems Group, and Terumo. Inochi Care is also one of 20 semi-finalists competing for four spots in the 2019 Grand Finals competition at the Medtech Forum, with up to $300,000 in non-dilutive cash prizes and awards.
 
“We are thrilled to have been selected as a Medtech Innovator Travel Award recipient and to participate in the program’s final competition,” said Shivani Gupta, founder and director of Inochi Care. “We are committed to addressing the severely unmet needs in chronic wound healing and bringing effective solutions to patients that need them. The opportunity to participate in the inaugural Asia Pacific program is unparalleled, and we look forward to advancing in our mission to improve patient lives with the support of Medtech Innovator and its industry-leading ecosystem.”
 
“Our goal in Medtech Innovator Asia Pacific is to find the most promising startups from across the Asia Pacific region and to give them access to our industry-leading corporate partners and world class ecosystem to ensure that their transformative health technologies reach patients and improve lives,” said Paul Grand, founding CEO of Medtech Innovator. “We are pleased that Inochi Care was chosen by regional industry leaders to receive the 2019 Travel Award to support the company’s important mission to improve the lives of patients with chronic wounds.”
 
Over 170 companies applied for the Asia Pacific program, and eight startups were selected to participate in the Tokyo pitch event. Each company presented in front of a panel of industry judges and an audience of more than 250 attendees. Startups had the opportunity to network with Medtech Innovator’s partners and to pitch their products, business plans, and value propositions to the judges. The judges included:
 

• CJ Chen, Baxter
• Kathy Wang, Baxter
• Ning Zhang, Baxter
• Yasushi Takigawa, Boston Scientific
• Masakazu Yagi, Japan Biodesign
• Rintaro Kurebayashi, JOHNAN
• Hiroshi Masuda, Johnson & Johnson
• Ruth Nicolas, Johnson & Johnson
• Keiko Tamai, Johnson & Johnson
• Takahiro Uchida, JOMDD
• Hajime Oshita, MedVenture Partners
• Toshiaki Baba, Nipro
• Tatsumichi Fujiwara, Nipro
• Takako Miyake, Nipro
• Kazuhiro Gono, Olympus
• Kiyoshi Miyake, Olympus
• Yuta Okada, Olympus
• Yuji Takamiya, Olympus
• Anurag Mairal, Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign
• Gordon Saul, Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign
• Naoki Ishii, Terumo

 
Startups selected to present in the Medtech Innovator Tokyo pitch event included:
 

• Vpix Medical – Daejeon, South Korea
• Vuno – Seoul, South Korea
• LongGood – Taipei, Taiwan
• Deep01 – Taipei, Taiwan
• Holoeyes – Tokyo, Japan
• Plimes – Tsukuba, Japan
• Bisu – Tokyo, Japan & San Francisco
• Inochi Care – New Delhi, India

 
Since 2013, Medtech Innovator has reviewed more than 3,000 startups and graduated 185 companies that have gone on to raise more than $1 billion in follow-on funding and bring 37 products to market. Medtech Innovator’s 2019 Asia Pacific program sponsors include Johnson & Johnson, Amgen, Boston Scientific, Johnan, Olympus Medical Systems Group, and Terumo. Regional sponsors for the Tokyo pitch event are Link-J and Johnan. The Medtech Innovator Asia Pacific Program is held in partnership with the Asia Pacific Medical Technology Association (APACMed).