Syncro Medical earns state grant

staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — Syncro Medical Innovations has been approved for a $350,000 grant from the state’s Third Frontier Program.

The Ohio Research Commercialization Grant is to be used to help the company market its magnetically guided feeding tube. The local company is one of eight companies that have been approved for $2.7 million in grants, which must be approved by the state controlling board.

Gary Wakeford, company president, said he will use the money to build inventory, conduct clinical trials at St. Elizabeth Health Center and hire a clinical educator, staff engineer and marketing director. The hirings are designed to help position the product in the market, he said.

The company’s staff now includes Wakeford and a director of engineering, but Wakeford said he expects Syncro Medical to have 20 employees and $50 million in annual revenues by 2013.

The company is located in 20 Federal Place downtown but is receiving support from the Youngstown Business Incubator.

Syncro Medical’s tube uses an external magnet to guide a tube into place in a patient’s body. The company’s goal is to eliminate the need for x-rays to position feeding tubes.