The first flexible microdebrider built for the digestive tract - resecting diseased tissue without heat.
Most tools that remove diseased tissue from the human gastrointestinal tract rely on electrical current - cautery that burns as it cuts, with the risk of thermal injury to the tissue nearby. Interscope, Inc., a medical device company in Northbridge, Massachusetts, took a different route. Its EndoRotor removes tissue mechanically, shaving and suctioning through a flexible catheter that threads down an endoscope, no thermal energy required.
The idea borrows from an instrument surgeons have used in the sinuses for years - the powered microdebrider - and reimagines it for the twisting, delicate anatomy of the digestive tract. Interscope calls the result the first flexible microdebrider designed for use in the GI tract. It performs three jobs that were once separate steps: dissection, resection, and collection of tissue, in a single pass.
Founded in 2011 by Jeffery Ryan and laryngologist Ramon Franco, MD, the company has spent more than a decade earning regulatory clearances one indication at a time. The payoff came in December 2020, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted De Novo marketing authorization for a procedure no other device is cleared to perform: Direct Endoscopic Necrosectomy in walled-off pancreatic necrosis.
Fig. 1 - Interscope's positioning statement for the EndoRotor system.
Interscope sells a single platform - the EndoRotor - to the physicians who handle the hardest cases in the gut and airway.
A powered console paired with a single-use flexible catheter. It dissects, cuts, and vacuums tissue into a collection trap - all mechanically, without cautery.
Gastroenterologists and endoscopists at hospitals and outpatient endoscopy centers, plus interventional pulmonologists for airway procedures.
Scarred, non-lifting, and residual lesions after mucosal resection - and walled-off pancreatic necrosis, a brutal condition to treat.
Walled-off pancreatic necrosis is the case that best explains why Interscope exists. Dead pancreatic tissue becomes sealed off in a cavity and, when infected, is difficult and dangerous to remove. Conventional treatment can mean repeated procedures and long hospital stays. In Interscope's FDA Investigational Device Exemption trial of 30 patients, an average of two procedures completed the necrosectomy with no complications related to EndoRotor use - and patients were hospitalized for roughly 16 days, against about 32 reported in the literature.
Approximate figures from Interscope's IDE trial versus reported literature. Bars are illustrative.
Fig. 2 - Trial reported no device-related complications across 30 enrolled patients.
The endoscopy suite is crowded with resection tools - snares, forceps, and thermal devices sold by giants like Boston Scientific, Olympus, and Cook Medical. Interscope's argument is not that it makes a better snare. It is that the EndoRotor collapses several instruments into one and removes the thermal risk entirely.
Because it cuts mechanically, there is no cautery spread to adjacent tissue. Because it suctions as it cuts, the tissue is captured for pathology in the same motion. And in direct endoscopic necrosectomy, it stands alone: no competing device carries FDA marketing authorization for the indication.
First-and-only FDA authorization for DEN, five U.S. patents, CE Mark, and ISO 13485 certification - a decade of regulatory groundwork competitors would need to replicate.
The core flexible powered resection platform for interventional gastroenterology - resection, retraction/suction, and sampling/retrieval in one tool.
Direct Endoscopic Necrosectomy for walled-off pancreatic necrosis and infected pseudocysts - a minimally invasive alternative to surgery.
Airway and pulmonary resection procedures performed without the thermal energy risks of conventional tools.
Physician education and procedural training program supporting clinical adoption, alongside clinical-trial support and ongoing research.
Interscope operates a classic medtech razor-and-blade model: a capital console plus recurring single-use catheters and consumables, sold business-to-business to hospitals and endoscopy centers. Distribution is amplified through a December 2020 partnership with Micro-Tech Endoscopy, which helps put the device in more physicians' hands.
Jeffery Ryan and Ramon Franco, MD co-found the company in Massachusetts to build powered endoscopic resection technology.
EndoRotor wins European regulatory approval and the company secures a foundational patent portfolio.
FDA clears the EndoRotor - the first flexible shaver technology - for interventional gastroenterology.
The device gains an airway indication; the company completes a Series A financing round.
De Novo authorization for Direct Endoscopic Necrosectomy, plus a distribution partnership with Micro-Tech Endoscopy.
More than 15 years in medical device marketing and sales, with prior roles at Medtronic Surgical Technologies and Smith & Nephew Orthopedics.
Laryngologist and former Division Director for Laryngology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear - the clinical mind behind the microdebrider concept.
Leadership also includes Corey Libby (VP, Operations & R&D), Ed Wierzbicki (VP, Sales USA), and Lance Rawlings (Regional Sales Director, West).
The EndoRotor, a flexible, powered endoscopic resection system that dissects, resects, and collects tissue in the GI tract and airways without thermal energy.
Interventional gastroenterology (2017), interventional pulmonology (2019), and Direct Endoscopic Necrosectomy for walled-off pancreatic necrosis via FDA De Novo authorization (2020).
It is the first flexible microdebrider designed for the digestive tract and the first and only device with FDA authorization for Direct Endoscopic Necrosectomy in walled-off pancreatic necrosis.
Interscope is headquartered in Northbridge, Massachusetts, with about 14 employees.
It was co-founded in 2011 by Jeffery Ryan (President & CEO) and Ramon A. Franco, Jr., MD (Chief Scientific Officer).