UniQuest start-up and now ASX-listed company, ImpediMed Limited (ASX:IPD), has been internationally recognised for having made “the biggest difference on an individual while addressing the greatest medical need”.

San Diego-based BIOCOM, the largest regional life science association in the world, recently presented ImpediMed with a “Life Changing Technology” award at its  6th Annual Medical Device & Diagnostics Expo.

The bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) technology underpinning ImpediMed’s L-DexTM U400 limb application for lymphoedema* was developed  by UQ’s Dr Leigh Ward and Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT) Dr Brian Thomas and Dr Bruce Cornish

UniQuest patented the BIA technology in 1999. Managing Director, David Henderson, said the award highlighted the impact of Australian research on cancer patient care around the world.

“We congratulate ImpediMed and the researchers on receiving such an important accolade. It’s a significant endorsement of Australian university-based innovation to have a panel of judges representing global companies like Johnson & Johnson and Sharp Healthcare acknowledge ImpediMed in this way,” Mr Henderson said.

“ImpediMed is a Queensland success story, and UniQuest is proud to have been involved at the start of its commercialisation journey from concept to clinical setting.”

Key milestones for ImpediMed:

  • UniQuest founded ImpediMed Limited in 2000 with an initial investor, Parma Corporation, run by Mel and Lucille Bridges.
  • In 2004 ImpediMed received a $250,000 Biotechnology Innovation Fund grant from the Australian federal government.
  • Following ImpediMed’s successful receipt of a unique US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for its primary product Imp XCA in 2006, the company released a prospectus to raise $18 million to fund the launch of its biomedical devices in the US and Europe. The share offer closed oversubscribed, and the company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange on 24 October 2007.
  • Later in 2007, ImpediMed launched the XCA for use in the clinical assessment of lymphoedema among breast cancer survivors.
  • The FDA awarded clearance to ImpediMed’s L-DexTM U400 in 2008 aid in the clinical assessment of unilateral lymphoedema of the arm in female breast cancer patients.
  • In 2010, when the American Medical Association announced a unique Category III CPT code for the use of Bioimpedance Spectroscopy (BIS) in the assessment of lymphoedema in both arms and legs, ImpediMed became the first company to offer FDA, CE and TGA cleared L-Dex devices for simple point of care, standardised and objective metrics to aid in the clinical assessment of lymphoedema.
  • By 2012 insurance reimbursement cover for the L-DexTM U400 had expanded to 23.4 million people in the US.

 

* persistent local tissue swelling resulting from lymph vessels blocked by cancer or removed in the course of cancer surgery.

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