Atlantic Therapeutics wins Innovation of the Year award

Galway-based medtech company Atlantic Therapeutics has won the Irish Times ‘Innovation of the Year Award’ for a product it developed to help control control bladder weakness. 

Atlantic Therapeutics’s device – Innovo – is similar in style and feel to a pair of cycling shorts and works by strengthening and rebuilding the pelvic floor muscles.

Earlier this year the company raised €28m in investment ahead of a move into the US, just months after receiving FDA approval for its Innovo technology platform.

Atlantic Therapeutics was founded in 2015 when it spun out of Bio-Medical Research, the company behind Slendertone. 

Innovo works by delivering 180 pelvic floor contractions in every 30-minute session to patients. 

According to a  pilot study after four weeks of treatment 93% of participants found a significant improvement.

Of the five categories for which awards were given last night, four of the recipients are based in the west of the country. 

PEL Waste Reduction Equipment – based in Balla, Co Mayo – won the manufacturing and design award for ‘BriteBin’, its solar-powered compacting litter bin which has ten times the volume of a standard street bin. 

UL-based FarmHedge won the IT and fintech category for building a technology platform that enables farmers and agri-companies to engage in fast and personalised communication across the agriculture supply chain. 

Fellow Limerick based company Electricity Exchange won the sustainability category for developing a system to maximise the revenues which can be earned by companies which are on standby to resolve frequency deviations on the national grid.

And biotech company Auranta, a spin-out from NovaUCD, won the New Frontiers category for developing a range of animal feeds which boost the immune system, reduce the need for antibiotics and significantly reduce mortality.