OAKLAND, TN.—Plexus Biomedical, a medical device company focused on a problem associated with childbirth and pregnancy, has raised $2 million from individual investors.

CEO David Blurton tells TechJournal South the company has less than 10 employees but will be hiring sales people. Blurton founded the company with Mark Buchanan, president. Both are veterans of the medical device industry and worked for Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Medtronic, one of the largest medical device firms.

“Both Mark and I have 20 plus years in the medical device industry,” Blurton says. “We’re familiar with the intellectual property and FDA process.”

While Blurton declined to discuss the company’s product more specificially, www.clinicaltrials.gov lists a Plexus Biomedical and University of Tennessee Health Science Center sponsored study of the HEM-AVERT Perianal Stablizer. It is intended to reduce the occurrence or severity of hemorrhoids, which commonly occur during vaginal deliveries.

The study, scheduled to start this month, enrolled 300 people. The instrument being tested , “is both non-invasive and poses a non-significant risk. It is classified as a manual, general instrument with no specific indications, but has a general indication of stabilizing pressure,” according to the study description. The instrument helps provide support during the labor process.

The problems it addresses “represent common adverse events in vaginal births with reported occurrences ranging from a low of 9 percent to a high of 34 percent in the reported literature. Currently no preventative treatment exists,” it says.

Blurton says the company intends to develop other products as well.

On the Webs: www.plexusbiomedical.com; www.clinicaltrials.gov.

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