Boulder startup Fluonic awarded $150K NIH grant

BOULDER – Medical device startup Fluonic Inc. on Wednesday announced that it has been awarded a $150,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the applicability of its fluid flow measurement technology to artificial pancreas systems.

Fluonic’s core business centers around infusion drug delivery for applications like IVs, with its VeriFlow sensors precisely measuring the amount of drug a patient receives.

The NIH grant will help Fluonic adapt its sensors to the flow characteristics of ambulatory insulin pumps. As researchers work to improve the lives of diabetes patients, an artificial pancreas would control the insulin pump. But Fluonic chief executive Jim Kasic said the insulin pumps can be imprecise in doling out insulin, causing glucose levels to be off.

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Kasic believes the VeriFlow sensors, incorporated at the insulin injection point, can record the flows of insulin within one percent accuracy.

“It’s a very well-known issue,” said Kasic, a serial entrepreneur and former CEO of Boulder-based Sophono Inc. who joined Fluonic over the summer. “People have been trying to solve this problem for years, and nobody’s been able to do it.”

The NIH funding is for a Phase I study that will last six months. If things go well, Kasic said a $750,000 Phase II grant for another year could follow.

Founded in 2009 by Amir Genosar, Fluonic didn’t really take off until earlier this year. The company’s first product to reach market will likely be sensors for post-operative pain pumps.

Kasic said the open-loop IV pumps in use today make an assumption based upon mechanics that a certain amount of fluid is going into a person. But those pumps can’t account for lines getting blocked, fluid backups or other circumstances.

“You assume the machine is giving you a certain amount of drug but there’s no way to measure it,” Kasic said.

With Fluonic’s sensors, the flow is monitored and the data converted to an electrical signal that can alert a doctor, patient or other caregiver via mobile notification if the dosage is off.

Fluonic is in the midst of trying to raise about $4 million to get the first product to market and build out a pipeline of other technologies. Kasic said the first product could be to market within a year of raising funds, meaning potentially by the end of 2015. He said the three-employee company would likely add up to 10 employees once the funding is secured.