Domain Elite has announced the collaboration's first investment in SMART Medical Systems, a developer and manufacturer of innovative endoscopy and colonoscopy products.
Domain Elite has invested $6.5m, which is the first amount in a multi-phase investment plan in SMART, focusing on Greater China.
Domain Elite was formed as a partnership between Domain Associates, a US venture capital firm investing in breakthrough life sciences technologies, and Elite Consulting, consultants and financial advisors to the Chinese pharmaceutical and medical device industry, to bring the most advanced healthcare products and technologies to China.
Part of the investment is allocated directly to SMART Medical’s subsidiary in Hong Kong, to advance SMART Medical’s platform of gastrointestinal (GI) medical devices for cancer prevention and endoscopic surgery in Greater China, including Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Domain Elite founder and Domain Associates partner Brian Halak noted that the mission of Domain Elite is to find the most effective medical technologies to fulfill important unmet medical needs and improve healthcare in China.
"In so doing, Domain will create unique investment opportunities in the rapidly growing Chinese market. SMART Medical Systems has an innovative and well-validated technology that we believe accomplishes both goals," Halak added.
SMART Medical Systems is the developer and manufacturer of several medical devices that improve the diagnosis and therapy of GI disorders and diseases, most notably, colorectal cancers.
SMART’s flagship product, the G-EYETM endoscope, uses innovative balloon technology to uncover pre-cancerous polyps that are hidden behind natural folds of the colon. This product is currently marketed in Europe in partnership with Pentax Medical, a market leader in GI endoscopy.
SMART Medical has additional products under development and commercialization, designed to allow standard endoscopes to access and visualize portions of the GI tract currently only accessible with the use of highly specialized equipment.