Exos Medical Corp. introduced a high-tech alternative to plaster casts last year that can be re-conformed as injuries swell and subside.
The company hopes its new Arden Hills facility will allow it similar flexibility. And right now, sales are swelling.
CEO Fariborz Boor Boor described sales as "nothing short of phenomenal" for a new medical technology, which often have slow adoption curves. (A recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission listed revenue at less than $1 million.)
Meanwhile, Exos' products have been worn by
some high-profile athletes, from NFL quarterbacks to Olympic skier Lindsay Vonn, and also noted on national tech blogs by
Fast Company and
BoingBoing.
"Actually, part of our growth challenge right now is meeting the demand, so we're taking steps to make sure we have product to sell," Boor Boor said.
Exos moved on April 1 from a 4,000-square-foot space in White Bear Lake to a 12,000-square-foot facility in Arden Hills, tripling its floor space. Meanwhile, it's grown from just five employees at the start of the year to more than 20 today. It expects to be at around 30 employees by the end of the year.
The company's technology is a lightweight foam and polymer product that can be molded and hardened into casts, braces, and splints. Unlike plaster casts, they're breathable, waterproof, and adjustable during the course of healing.
"Beyond that, the comfort level of our products is unprecedented," Boor Boor said. "That really was our focus, making sure we could make a product that was comfortable for the patient and easy for the practitioner to apply."
The cost is "a bit higher" than traditional casts, he said, but the price becomes competitive when you factor in that traditional casts often have to be replaced.
The company was created in Aug. 2007 as a spin-off from Boor Boor's previous endeavor, a med-tech incubator called Enova Medical Technologies.
Source: Fariborz Boor Boor, Exos Corporation
Writer:
Dan Haugen