Derek Herrera, a former Marine who became paralyzed in 2012 while in combat, knows how unpleasant it is for many people to undergo bladder testing.
“The test is uncomfortable and embarrassing; the entire experience is less than ideal,” Herrera told the Business Journal.
“You’re tethered to this machine with a laptop nearby and fluid is pumped into the bladder while technicians watch you. You cannot move around. You don’t have privacy.
“I decided that I had a unique opportunity to leverage my experience as a patient to help other people and myself with new products.”
Herrera’s insights led him in 2021 to start a company, Bright Uro Inc., which is building a diagnostic system for bladder testing called the Glean Urodynamics System. Herrera said the system could be considered like a stethoscope for the bladder.
He’s won fans, having already raised $23 million, including $13 million in a recent Series A round.
The Series A financing round was led by Laborie Medical Technologies, a New Hampshire-based investor in urology diagnostic and therapeutic solutions. Laborie is privately owned by Patricia Industries, a part of Sweden’s Investor AB, northern Europe’s largest industrial holding company, which is publicly listed on Nasdaq Stockholm (Cboe Europe: INVEAS.XD) and its majority owner is the Wallenberg Foundations.
“The Glean system is a very novel technology,” Laborie Chief Executive Michael Frazzette said in a statement. “This investment furthers our commitment to preserve and restore human dignity while improving patient access and outcomes.”
Bright Uro is the latest well-funded Orange County firm to specialize in urology, joining companies like Axonics Inc. (Nasdaq: AXNX), which last week announced it would be sold to Boston Scientific for $3.7 billion, as well as MDxHealth SA (Nasdaq: MDXH) and Urovant Sciences Ltd., now a unit of giant Japanese pharmaceutical firm Sumitomo Pharma Co.
String Advantage
The idea for Glean originated in the early 2000s at the Cleveland Clinic, which granted Herrera an intellectual property license.
Bright Uro’s Glean system took the Cleveland Clinic’s idea for the sensor and added a reusable “Uroflowmeter” that receives data from the sensor and built software apps.
Herrera said the sensor is essentially a computer that is inserted via catheter through the urethra into the bladder where it can bend to the natural shape of that organ.
The sensor is designed to measure pressure in the bladder for urodynamic monitoring. The first version of the product Bright Uro plans to commercialize will be limited to in-clinic use. The company plans to conduct clinical trials to generate data and show that the sensor can safely monitor patients at home for extended periods of time.
Bright Uro said its advantage is that a catheter doesn’t need to remain in the urethra during the testing. A string can gently pull out the sensor when testing is done.
“It’s very simple to insert,” Herrera said. “It’s very safe for patients. It takes a nurse a couple minutes—there’s no longer a large plastic tube or catheter hanging out from your body.
“Once it’s in your bladder, there’s just a small string that hangs out. It’s much more comfortable. You can walk around. You’re not tied to the machine. We put the whole machine inside your bladder. You don’t have to urinate in front of others.”
The cost of a typical bladder testing machine, anywhere from $30,000 to $150,000, hinders more testing, Herrera said. For example, he pointed to an Orange County office that employs 20 urologists, but it has only two machines; the waiting time for a test could be up to three months.
Bright Uro’s plan is to use a razor-and-blade strategy where it will give away its Uroflowmeter for free and charge a slightly higher disposable cost for the sensor.
He estimated about 500,000 to 600,000 tests are conducted annually. Since the test is so expensive, hard to do and uncomfortable, many more could be done.
“We think the market size should be much bigger. It’s a massive opportunity.”
Employees
The most recent funding will be used to achieve Food and Drug Administration 510(k) clearance of the Glean Urodynamics System; the company is planning to launch the product in the U.S. in late 2024.
Herrera’s been able to convince industry experts to join the 13-employee company.
It hired as chief product development officer Dr. Suranjan Roychowdhury, who has experience leading research at both startups and large medical device companies like Boston Scientific.
It also hired as its chief commercial officer Casey Kanel, who has more than 30 years of experience in urology and urogynecology device sales, including at Medtronic and leading the U.S. launch of Contura’s Bulkamid, an injection to help incontinence issues in women; Contura was acquired by Axonics in 2021.
“I see this product as the next medical advance,” Kanel told the Business Journal.
A Day to Remember
June 14, 2012, was the day that Derek Herrera, who was a Marine then stationed in Afghanistan, will remember forever.
“I was leading a small team on a patrol and was in a chaotic province,” the founder of Irvine’s Bright Uro Inc. recalled. “I was shot and paralyzed from the chest down. Fortunately, due to heroism of others, I survived that incident.”
After Herrera was shot, he spent the next year in rehabilitation.
“No one ever says you’ll never walk again. That allowed me to think positively. Over time, I came to the realization that I wasn’t recovering, and it was more permanent than I initially thought.
“I struggled like everybody. It’s inevitable” to suffer depression, he said.
“If you’re human and you live long enough, you’re going to experience challenges, trauma, loss, suffering and it’s hard. It’s also part of what makes life beautiful. If life was risk-free and you never die, you’d be indifferent.”
Herrera, a 2006 graduate of the Naval Academy, has won several awards, including the Purple Heart. He stayed in the Marines until late 2014, even working as a battalion future operations officer at Camp Pendleton.
A few months after his injury, his attitude took a dramatic change when his friends were killed in Afghanistan.
“It makes it real easy to stop feeling sorry for yourself when you realize my friends would be happy to have my life,” he said. “The way that I can honor their legacies is to take advantage of all the opportunities that they will never have.”
He credits his wife, Maura, and fellow Marines with helping him get through the ordeal. He decided he had two choices going forward.
“Squander this opportunity every day or go forward and do something meaningful and live life to the fullest. Which one of those would be the better way to honor their legacies? Once that mental shift happened for me, it was very simple to choose.”
He earned an MBA at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, where he was awarded the John Wooden Global Leadership Fellowship.
He founded UroDev Medical, a San Clemente-based company that designs medical devices to improve the quality of life for people with spinal cord injuries and diseases. He works with several charities like the Paralyzed Veterans of America Research Foundation. He’s appeared in the national media, including CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” and ABC News’ “Nightline Person of the Week” segment.
He continues to travel, including the Middle East, the recent Army-Navy football game and China, where residents carried him to the top of the Great Wall.
“Life is good. I have a great life. I’m in a wheelchair but I got a great wife, two great kids. I’m running a company.
“I’m fortunate to be alive. I’m grateful every day. There’s so much to enjoy.”
—Peter J. Brennan
