Italian Angels for Growth is the main Italian business angel network and has nearly one hundred members, interested in investments early stage in wide range of industries. Born in late 2007, IAG members (who always invest in sindacate) has so far backed 19 start up companies (24 investments, equal to 6,5million euros), both Italian and foreigners. Margherita Invention is the third investment in medical industry and follows the ones closed in the past months in two other start up companies, SediciDodici and Win. Overall, medical industry has already attracted investment of IAG members for about a 1.5 million euro.
Antonio Leone, the IAG member who led the investment transaction, said:
“Once again, a relevant group of IAG members decided to invest in a biomedical company that has developed and patented a product that solves a huge and urgent problem in the context of medical and paramedical profession.”
MARGHERITA FINGERGUARD is a unique patented syringe accessory that prevents accidental stick injury.
Injuries caused by syringe needles are among the most common and severe risks for the healthcare operators and represent a hight cost for the health systems.
Consequences might be sometimes extremely severe and lead to infections such as viral hepatitis, AIDS and malaria. Some sector studies assess that every year in Europe around 1.2 millions injuries by syringe needles occurs. Furthermore, costs coming from needle puncture injuries of this type are significant from both an ethical and economic point of view: in Italy alone, more than 25 million euros are spent every year to carry out investigative blood tests on people injured in that way.
Born from the initiative of a doctor, Carlo Giuberchio, Margherita FingerGuard represents “the solution” to which no one had yet thought of. Made of colored polypropylene, very simple design, the perfect form of the circle, the disposal has been tested (and had enthusiastic feedbacks) by common citizens in need of use of syringes at their homes, professors of various medicine and surgery university courses, biomedical engineers, hospital nurses, general medicine physicians, medical guard physicians, emergency paramedics. Great support was give to the startup by the Research Institute Mario Negri and had also the Patronage of the University of Pavia. The great innovation of Margaret FingerGuard lies in its simplicity that expresses effectiveness in responding to an existing issue, usability and cost savings for the health system.
