CathBuddy — A No-Touch Catheter System

Helping catheter users avoid infections through its patented reusable no-touch catheter system.

The Problem

People who use standard intermittent catheters to manage incontinence and neurogenic bladder will face a 40–60% annual complicated UTI risk. Complicated infections worsen over time and require aggressive antibiotic treatments, leading to hospitalization, chronic kidney disease, and death. There are safer no-touch catheters on the market that reduce this risk by 30%, but these products are rarely covered by insurers because they are 4x the cost of standard catheters.

What The Company Does

CathBuddy is developing a catheter system comprised of a reusable, RFID-tagged intermittent catheter. It contains a detachable catheter insertion aid that prevents the contact contamination that leads to infection and a patented at-home sterilizer that can sterilize a daily supply of catheters while simultaneously tracking catheter usage. Reusability allows for the amortization of higher cost catheters over multiple uses, resulting in a lower annual price point versus the existing standard of care. The system is a platform technology that will grow to incorporate digital services such as EHR integration and tele-urology as well as physical innovations such as sensor-equipped catheters. Gathering patient specific data multiple times a day will then allow for personalized health in neurogenic bladder management.

Business Model

The team will utilize a subscription-based business model. There is a $100 upfront cost for the catheter and insertion aid, but the at-home sterilizer will be free. This results in an estimated annual revenue per user of $2,400. Each catheter and insertion aid will be able to be used for 100 uses, dropping the average price per use to $1.00, compared to $1.73, the current Medicare reimbursement floor for basic catheters and $6.71 for premium catheters with insertion supplies.

The Market

Initially, the team is targeting the neurogenic bladder market as their primary market. There are approximately 1.1 million Americans and 10.8 million people internationally who have neurogenic bladder and use intermittent catheters in order to urinate. The 2019 US intermittent catheter market was estimated to be a $900 million market, though this figure is inclusive of off-label reuse by 56% of the patient population. At an annual cost of $2,400 for the CathBuddy system, full market penetration results in an annual US SAM of $2.64 billion dollars. With international expansion, the annual market could increase by an additional $25.9 billion dollars. Additions to the system in the form of digital services and/or smart catheters may increase market size potential in the future.

Traction

The team hold various awards, including being a MassChallenge 2018 Boston Semi-finalists and winning the 2018 Tufts New Ventures Competition (Medical Device Track). They have been in the 2019 Fall Cohort for Health Wildcatters, a Dallas-based accelerator, and won the 2019 Medical Device Innovation Challenge hosted by the Central New York Biotech Accelerator. Currently, they are participating in the 2020 cohort of the SCI Accelerate accelerator, hosted by the Praxis Spinal Cord Institute in Vancouver.

Founding Team Background

CathBuddy is lead by CEO Souvik Paul, a Harvard alumni and former wall street trader at JP Morgan that turned industrial designer and design strategist. Prior to launching CathBuddy, he was a design strategist and project manager at Johnson & Johnson. He started the company after his close friend sustained a spinal cord injury in a car accident and became reliant on catheters. Daniel Wollin serves as the team’s Chief Medical Advisor. Wolling is a practicing urologist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA, and a clinical faculty member at Harvard Medical School.

What They Need Help With

CathBuddy is looking for technical, commercialization, and clinical advisors for our advisory board. They are also looking for investors who have a clinical or personal interest in the problem that they are solving. Connect with the CathBuddy team here.

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