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ZIM Award (Central Innovation Initative by the German Department of Commerce) First Place

Ovesco wins Award of the Ministry of Economics for successful product innovation and excellent economic results in commercialization

On the occasion of the 21st SME Innovation Day of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology held in Berlin on May 22, 2014 Ovesco received the 1st of 3 ZIM Awards which was offered in the framework of the Central Innovation Programme for SMEs (ZIM).

Iris Gleicke, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry handed out the award to Marc Schurr highlighting extensively Ovesco as a successful SME example. Ovesco was recognized for its innovative clip technology for minimally invasive therapy of gastrointestinal disease yielding products like OTSC Proctology and the FTRD System with beneficial effects in terms of medical progress on one side and generating economic growth on the other hand.

Ovesco has developed novel clip technologies within a ZIM project: OTSC® Proctology for the treatment of fistulas, the FTRD® System for the treatment of colon cancer. Basis of both technologies are special metal clips of a biocompatible superelastic material which are able to compress and permanently grip tissues.

The FTRD® System makes it possible to treat colon cancer only endoscopically by full thickness colon resection. The applicator cap of the clipping system is mounted on the tip of the endoscope and led to the target site in the colon. The wall lesion is pulled into the applicator cap. The clip is released and bites the lesion, the snare integrated in the applicator cap cuts off the tissue. The clip avoids bleedings and open wounds in the colon. In most cases, depending on the tumour stage, surgical intervention is not necessary anymore. Two dozen patients who were treated this way within a study could be released from hospital the next day.

A similar technique was developed for the treatment of anal fistulas: OTSC® Proctology enables a nearly painless closure of the internal opening of the fistula. After some weeks the fistula has healed and the clip can be removed easily with the help of a special clip cutter. In an initial study this procedure showed a healing rate of around 90 percent.

ZIM Erfolgsbeispiel (pdf)