i-SEP simplifies autotransfusion

The Nantes-based start-up i-SEP is preparing to raise €2 million before summer. Bolstered by its resources, this Medtech company, founded in 2015, will have the financial wherewithal to carry out clinical trials on its autotransfusion solution and to finance its CE marking, a crucial step to authorizing market placement.

The intraoperative cell salvage solution (IOCS) is easier to implement than existing processes. Above all, however, the technology is capable of returning blood to a patient along with that patient’s red blood cells (as can other technology) but also (and this is unprecedented) with the platelets. This is the goal pursued by Sylvain Picot, a biochemical engineer, and Dr Francis Gadrat, a former anesthetist at Bordeaux University Hospital, in association with Bertrand Chastenet, a consultant for the pharmaceutical industry.
There is a lot at stake for this young company with a staff of 12 scientists.
“The market is worth around €300 million worldwide, but one-third to one-half of potentially concerned patients don’t have access to it” says Sylvain Picot, Chairman of i-SEP.

Bolstered by its medical and economic potential, i-SEP, co-owned by the three founders and the Go Capital venture capital fund, has already attracted several partners. The start-up is supported by BPI France and the Regional Council, incubated by Atlanpole and located in the Bio Ouest business incubator located at the île de Nantes island in the city centre of Nantes. The first commercial runs of the product are planned for 2020.