Devicare ushers in Lit-Control® to the United Kingdom

Devicare has brought Patrick Kirby and Martin Atkinson into its team as Country Managers, in order to launch Lit- Control® in the United Kingdom (UK). Lit-Control® will be the first medical solution on the British market to prevent and treat recurring urinary diseases (lithiasis, infections, hyperactive bladder, painful bladder syndrome, interstitial cystitis, catheter calcification, etc.) using self-monitoring of urinary pH levels by the patient.

Patrick Kirby has more than 30 years of experience in the health field in UK, especially in self-care medical devices and diagnostic testing. He has acted as senior manager and has been a consultant on early-stage business development opportunities in both pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies (Valirx Plc, Boehringer Mannheim GmbH, and Cherwell Laboratories Ltd, among others). In 2012 he founded the 1st Health Products Ltd consultancy. Martin Atkinson is a former senior executive in Lloyds Bank where he worked in a variety of commercial and corporate banking roles, before joining a private equity company arranging funding for small and medium sized companies.

“As of October we will begin to introduce this first-in-class class product to the medical and scientific community, to opinion leaders and large distribution chains”, explains Miquel González Mut, International Business Development Manager at Devicare, who has also led recent agreements with partner organisations in France, Mexico and Colombia.

The “self-care” era

The United Kingdom is one of the European countries where self-care is increasingly being introduced, and specifically, Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) technology, in which Devicare is a specialist. This is being driven directly by the National Health Service (NHS) in order to reduce costs and increase patient health outcomes.

Chronic urinary diseases are the second leading cause of primary care consultations in Europe. In the United Kingdom, 85,000 cases of renal lithiasis (kidney stones) are reported each year, according to data from the NHS’ Hospital Episode Statistics body. This figure increased by 63% between the years 2000 and 2010.

Lit-Control® to monitor urological health

Devicare has been a pioneer in developing a domiciliary method for the selfmanagement of frequent urological pathologies called Lit-Contro l®. This method is made up by the Lit-Control® pH Meter medical device and the Lit-Control® pH Up and Lit-Control® pH Down food supplements. Lit-Control® enables patients to monitor and control their urine pH in a simple, accurate and reliable way, thereby preventing, treating and/or avoiding the recurrence of a wide range of urological disorders. On the other hand, it offers doctors greater possibilities for monitoring and controlling patients, as well as greater adherence and treatment effectiveness.

Recently, the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), the Hospital de Manacor and Devicare have begun a patient study to assess the effect of theobromine, the world’s only uric acid crystallisation inhibitor in urine, discovered by the UIB’s Laboratory of Renal Lithiasis Research led by Dr. Fèlix Grases. If the results of this clinical trial are positive, Devicare will include theobromine in its Lit-Control® pH Up supplement in order to enhance its effectiveness.

About Devicare

Devicare (www.devicare.com) is a company specialized in the development of innovative solutions and medical devices for the home care of chronic patients. These solutions are developed under the concept of Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) in order to enable the patient to actively participate in the monitoring of their disease. Currently, the company offers two product lines: Lit-Control® (www.lit-control.com) for the prevention and selfmanagement of recurrent urinary diseases and Tao-Control® (www.tao-control.com) for self-management of patients taking anticoagulants (medicines such as Sintrom® or Aldocumar®). Devicare’s headquarters is located at the UAB Research Park, in Cerdanyola del Vallès, near Barcelona (Spain).