Medovate secures licence to develop and launch ground-breaking anaesthesia innovations

Medovate, the medical device company dedicated to the development and commercialisation of medical technologies, has announced that it has secured the exclusive rights to design, develop, manufacture and sell two ground-breaking innovations in the field of anaesthesia.

The innovations in question are Regional Anaesthesia Device (RADS), developed with Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, and the Safer Injection for Regional Anaesthesia (SAFIRA) which is being developed with the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn, NHS Foundation Trust. Both innovations have been invented by leading anaesthetists working at their respective NHS Trusts.

Medovate was launched by Health Enterprise East (HEE), the NHS innovation hub, in February 2018 with investment capital worth £9m and a remit to boost the financial and technical support available to medtech innovators within the NHS. RADS and SAFIRA are the first products to be added to Medovate’s portfolio, and under the terms of the licence agreements, Medovate can now take these innovations through the phases of design & development, regulatory approval and clinical trial to market launch.

RADS and SAFIRA are complementary local anaesthesia products designed to ensure that regional blocks are delivered within safe pressure limits. RADS is an easily portable product, making it ideal for use by one operator.

SAFIRA provides an end-to-end safety solution and gives anaesthetists enhanced data monitoring, recording the entire procedure with precise readings on time, pressure and volume to provide safe anaesthetic administration.

Stuart Thomson, Managing Director of Medovate, commented:“There are approximately 6 million regional block procedures carried out in the EU and US each year. Injection above the published safe pressure threshold can lead to serious nerve damage in up to 1% of cases and transient nerve damage in up to 5% cases, so this is a major problem. There are also broader repercussions including financial compensation claims, increased anaesthetist and care provider anxiety and importantly, a rise in patient re-admission. RADS and SAFIRA together can tackle all these problems and help ensure that complications from nerve damage finally become a thing of the past.

Anne Blackwood, CEO of Health Enterprise East, commented: “RADS and SAFIRA are fantastic examples of the many innovative ideas being developed by NHS staff in hospitals all around the UK. We are proud to have been involved in the formation of Medovate and their technical and commercial expertise will help to fast-track innovations of this kind. We look forward to seeing both patients and clinicians reaping the benefits once RADS and SAFIRA come to market.”

About Medovate www.medovate.co.uk

Medovate is an innovation development company dedicated to the commercialisation of innovative medical technologies created within the NHS. Backed by £9 million of investment capital, Medovate identifies and works with high potential medtech innovations, providing the specialist management resources and finance required to support innovation development through clinical trials and regulatory approval. By providing funding and support at a crucial point in the development of innovative medical technologies, Medovate accelerates innovations to market in order to benefit patient care and healthcare delivery. Medovate directly benefits the NHS by:

  • Providing access to funding, support and expertise to enable innovations created within the NHS to reach the market
  • Delivering commercial returns to the NHS organisations and inventors that created the technologies
  • Reinvesting in the NHS: thanks to HEE’s stake in Medovate, commercial returns will be used to stimulate NHS innovation across all of HEE’s NHS members


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