Start-up Vitality signs APAC distribution deals

New Australian start-up Vitality Devices has signed agreements to distribute two medical devices locally and across Asia-Pacific.

Vitality, founded by former ChemGenex CEO Greg Collier and COO Dr James Campbell, has announced distribution deals with Curaçao's Impulse Dynamics NV and Israel's MetaCure Ltd.

The deals cover Impulse Dynamics' OPTIMIZER chronic heart failure treatment system, and MetaCure's DIAMOND system for treating type 2 diabetes.

Vitality will be granted the rights to distribute these products in Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, as well as the United Arab Emirates.

Vitality was founded to commercialise new medical technology in the Asia-Pacific region. Announcing the deal, Vitality CEO Greg Collier said the company plans to make the two products the cornerstone of its commercial platform, and to add new devices to the pipeline over time.

Collier agreed to sell ChemGenex to US-based Cephalon in 2011 for $159 million. Cephalon was already a shareholder, having first bought into ChemGenex a year earlier.

ChemGenex had been founded to develop pharmaceutical cancer treatments, and at the time of the sale had been preparing a New Drug Application with the US FDA covering a treatment for chronic myelogenous leukaemia (CML).