Originally Published MPMN May 2009

MD&M EAST 2009: FIRST-TIME EXHIBITORS

Lubricious Coating Provider Maintains Surface Appearances

Bob Michaels

In 2005, Ron Sahatjian left Boston Scientific Corp. (Natick, MA) with the goal of retiring to the golf course. Instead of improving his handicap on the green, however, he ended up becoming an expert in other types of surfaces. The result was Medi-Solve Coatings LLC (Natick, MA), a venture that specializes in surface coatings and polymer chemistry solutions for medical devices.

"What really helped to get us established was that Boston Scientific let me acquire part of my lab to take with me," remarks Sahatjian. "Art Madenjian, also of Boston Scientific, later joined me to help set up the new company, and Medi-Solve Coatings was born." With more than 40 years of combined experience, the pair have built a company that offers hydrophilic coatings, fluoropolymers, drug-delivery coatings, and antimicrobial systems. It also provides a range of related services, from process development and customized equipment support to testing expertise and radio-frequency plasma surface treatment.

Sahatjian and Madenjian established Medi-Solve Coatings to provide support to small and mid-sized companies that knew how to design medical devices but required a lubricious, antimicrobial, or thromboresistant coating that could outperform competitive products. "We have been successful at providing coating formulations and processes to several customers that coat their products in their own manufacturing facilities using our formulations," notes Sahatjian. The company's coatings, he adds, have been CE marked as part of a 510(k) submission and are applied to products that are marketed in the United States and abroad. In addition to the more than 100 U.S. patents already held by Sahatjian and his colleagues, the company expects to be awarded another patent soon for its coating technology.

The company's coatings include AquaCoat LC, one of the most lubricious coatings available, according to Sahatjian. It also markets AquaCoat PA, a plasma-activated surface treatment that adheres the coating to the substrate; AquaCoat DEB, a balloon-based drug-release coating for coronary artery restenosis that is used when stents are difficult to insert into the body; and AquaCoat Gel, a coating that the company says remains slippery and moist outside the body after other coatings have become tacky and dry.

In addition to offering device coatings, the company's next objective is to convert its controlled-environment facility to a Class 10,000 cleanroom to coat products for final packaging. It also intends to expand its current testing capabilities, which include friction and trackability testing and thermal analysis techniques such as differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis. It also plans to start an aseptic polymer solutions effort to provide its customers with specialty polymer products.

Medi-Solve Coatings
www.medi-solveassociates.com
Booth #969

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