The Memo: Aurie Rethinking the Single-Use Model for Intermittent Catheters

Under the direction of Founder & CEO Souvik Paul, Aurie is developing a reusable intermittent catheter system designed to make advanced infection-reduction features more accessible to people who catheterize multiple times each day. The company’s FDA-cleared system pairs a reusable no-touch catheter with a portable washer-disinfector that automatically cleans, disinfects, and lubricates the catheter between uses. With its first commercial launch planned through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Aurie is building toward a broader vision: using reusability not only to reduce the cost and waste associated with intermittent catheterization, but also as a platform for technologies that could enable earlier detection and more individualized diagnosis of complicated urinary tract infections.

Origin Story

Aurie began with a problem Souvik encountered through his own family.

12 years ago, his sister-in-law, Carina, sustained a spinal cord injury in a car crash. She began relying on intermittent catheterization four to six times each day, a routine she will continue for the rest of her life. As Souvik learned more about her care, he saw a disconnect between the technology available to catheter users and the products many could realistically access.

“What I learned from her was that the catheter she could actually get and the catheter she should have were two different products,” Souvik said.

At the time, Souvik was beginning graduate school in human-centered design. He decided to focus his work on products and services that could improve health and quality of life for people with spinal cord injuries, eventually designing a precursor to what would become the Aurie System.

Two years later, Souvik joined Johnson & Johnson as a design strategist focused on vision care. The experience gave him another perspective on bringing healthcare technologies to market.

“I also learned how large corporates handle innovation, and saw firsthand that it was easier for a large corporate to acquire a new innovation than build it from scratch internally,” he said. “I became convinced that for the Aurie System to become a reality, I would need to build the product and scale it.”

That conviction ultimately became Aurie.

The Current Landscape

Approximately 600,000 people in the United States rely on intermittent catheters, primarily because of spinal cord injury, spina bifida, and multiple sclerosis, according to Aurie. Many catheterize four to six or more times each day, making the device a persistent part of everyday life.

The standard of care remains a single-use catheter that is discarded after each catheterization, which can amount to roughly 2,400 devices per patient each year. Within that market is what Souvik describes as a “quality ladder,” ranging from basic uncoated catheters to hydrophilic-coated products and, at the top, closed-system and no-touch catheters incorporating features intended to reduce contamination during insertion.

The problem is that access tends to narrow as the technology becomes more sophisticated.

Aurie cites published registry data associating integrated no-touch features with 62% lower odds of infection. Yet according to Souvik, these premium catheters cost approximately $24,000 annually at list price, compared with roughly $6,200 for a standard catheter, and only about 5% of Medicare beneficiaries receive access to closed-system and no-touch products.

“So the safest product on the market is, for the large majority of users, unavailable,” Souvik said.

Aurie is attempting to change that equation through reusability.

This blog is originally published here: https://www.lifesciencemarketresearch.com/insights/the-memo-aurie-rethinking-the-single-use-model-for-intermittent-catheters