A Danish blood-flow imaging company has planted its new U.S. headquarters in Minneapolis.
MedTrace Pharma A/S opened its first office for U.S. operations earlier this week at the IDS Center in downtown Minneapolis. Founded in 2015, the Denmark-based med-tech company use its technology to help diagnose certain diseases, like coronary artery disease, through quantifying perfusion, or blood flow, according to co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Rune Wiik Kristensen, who will also be the company’s new president of U.S operations.
Wiik Kristensen will also relocate to Minnesota as a result.
The company chose to come to the Minneapolis market because the “Twin Cities are the global hub for medical devices,” Wiik Kristensen said. Other reasons include the central location to the coasts and the collaborative nature of the state, including that embodied by the Golden Valley-based Medical Alley Association, he said.
MedTrace has been a member company of Medical Alley for several years, Wiik Kristensen said. He attributes expansion to Minnesota in part due to the work of the nonprofit, which supports Minnesota’s health care technology industry.
In recent years, Medical Alley has been working to bring international companies to the state through its Medical Alley Global work, according to Frank Jaskulke, vice president of intelligence for Medical Alley. A part of that work includes a partnership with Denmark-based MedTech Bridge, a nonprofit program that helps medical-device and digital-health companies enter the U.S. market. MedTrace’s CEO Martin Stenfeldt is an advisory board member for MedTech Bridge, according to his LinkedIn page.
“MedTrace is a great company to have in the ecosystem,” Jaskulke said, adding that its technology has significant clinical impacts.
Across its entire international operations, MedTrace has about 45 employees and is looking to expand, Wiik Kristensen said. It currently has four employees based in the U.S. but intends to grow that number to 10 within a year, a majority of whom will be based in Minneapolis.
MedTrace’s technology is not cleared for market yet, but Wiik Kristensen said he expects a European CE marking to be obtained by mid to late next year. It has been used in more than 2,000 patients so far at established clinical sites in Denmark and other Scandinavian countries.
In the U.S., the company is looking to secure two clinical sites for use of its technology, likely one of them being Mayo Clinic, for patient enrollment beginning by the end of the year, Wiik Kristensen said.
With the new location, MedTrace plans to look for additional clinical sites, such as at hospitals and universities, and bolster industry partnerships, he added.
MedTrace has been supported by funding, including a Series B funding round last year. It raised $30.6 million in that round, Wiik Kristensen said.
