I-Tek Medical is joining forces with Vita Group to create VitaTek Medical.
The merger will offer a one-stop shop for a medical device company. VitaTek offers end-to-end in-house services that stretch the gamut from research and development and injection molding up to distribution and deploying a sales team.
“We are the only vertically integrated medical device manufacturer that provides A-to-Z services in the entire U.S.,” said Jason Scherer, CEO of the new company. The newly merged company will reduce costs and expedite timelines by consolidating the entire process.
Vita Group is historically a medical device incubator and accelerator; I-Tek Medical was a medical device contract manufacturing company. Scherer said he interviewed all contract manufacturers throughout the state before landing on I-Tek, which is “our missing puzzle piece,” he said.
Scherer said the merger means more medical device companies are going to pay to have their products developed in Minnesota.
I-Tek was founded in 2005 with the aim to streamline product development and accelerate time-to-market. Over the past 18 years, the company has worked with a variety of R&D consulting firms. CEO Patrick Haley emphasized the importance of a seamless project transition from R&D to a contract manufacturer.
“With the merger completed, we're not just redefining the future; we're rewriting the entire playbook,” Haley, who is now chief operations officer of VitaTek, said in a press release. “This strategic union empowers us to eliminate the obstacles that have long plagued medical device development.”
Vita Group's 120,000-square-foot headquarters is underway in Woodbury. That HQ is slated to be completed in April and will house all of VitaTek's operations, aside from some work that will happen at a 10,000-square-foot die-mold and tooling shop in Blaine. There’s also room for 70,000 square feet of future expansion.
