Aditus Eyes Profitability With Spinal Device
By VITA REED
Laguna Hills-based Aditus Systems Inc., a unit of Switzerland’s Idiag AG, is pinning its hopes on a medical device that analyzes the spine.
Aditus is marketing the SpinalMouse, a non-invasive, computer-aided medical device that detects the shape and flexibility of the spinal column. The device has Food and Drug Administration approval.
The SpinalMouse works without radiation,Aditus claims that the product is as accurate and reliable as a radiographic spinal analysis. The company’s Web site contends that the SpinalMouse provides information on spinal conditions that has been previously supplied only by more expensive ultrasound or radiographic methods.
Privately held Ad-itus has revenue, but isn’t yet profitable, according to Chief Executive Eric Walt-ert. Revenue “doesn’t cover our whole operations,we are very close,” he said.
Aditus will develop and introduce more medical devices in the future, Waltert said.
“This is our first operation in the states. We had a business contact in Aliso Viejo and we took over (that business),” he said.
Aditus plans to market the Spinal-Mouse to surgeons, rehabilitation professionals, chiropractors and what Waltert called “the fitness market,” including sports clubs. “There are different targets. It is not a consumer device.”
Idiag was founded in 1993 in Volk-etswil, Switzerland. It sells medical, health management and traffic control products. New Value AG, a Zurich-based investment firm, is a significant investor in Idiag. New Value had invested about $1.5 million in the company as of the end of the year.
Aditus is seeking larger partners to distribute the Spinal Mouse and other products.
Idiag has another medical device, the SpiroTiger, which improves a user’s respiratory endurance. Idiag developed the SpiroTiger with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and the Interstate University of Applied Sciences of Technolo-gy in Buchs, Switzerland.
SpiroTiger has been approved by U.S. regulators as a sports device; the company is waiting to hear whether it will be approved for the medical market, according to Waltert.
So far, Aditus only has two employees and isn’t planning to establish its own sales force, Waltert said.
