Ironwood Helps Reproduction Firm Repromedix with Recent Funding
By Dyke Hendrickson

A Woburn company recently banked $2.2 million in venture funding with a mandate to expand its position as one of the nation’s leading labs for advanced reproductive testing.

Repromedix Corp. received money from the Ironwood Equity Fund and Brook Venture Partners. The infusion comes in addition to $500,000 in subordinated debt it received from the Massachusetts Business Development Corp. last year.

“The new funding will enable us to expand," said Craig Sockol, founder and CEO of the company, which he launched in 1994.

“We’ll use it to license and acquire new technology to deal with reproductive disorders and to add to our marketing and sales efforts."

In conjunction with the new funding, the private company named Norman Wirtz as chief financial officer.

Wirtz joins Repromedix from Plassein International, where he was chief financial officer. He previously held executive positions with General Cinema Corp., TAD Resources International and TRS Staffing Solutions.

Repromedix officials say it is the leading national laboratory specializing in advanced reproductive testing. It processes about 12,000 tests per month.

The test samples generally come from doctors working with prospective parents who are having trouble achieving pregnancy.

The company, which employs about 50, has the capability to conduct more than 70 different tests. Such testing looks for potential irregularities in both men and women.

One of its newest screening technologies is for cystic fibrosis. Industry analysts say that women who have cystic fibrosis or are carriers have acute difficulty in reproducing.

“We think this company has valuable technology and has been a little under the radar screen in the industry," said Josh Tolkoff, a managing director at investor Ironwood Equity Fund.

“If women all had kids at 20, there wouldn’t be a business. But because many women wait there are more challenges, and it becomes an area of interest for (older) couples who have trouble conceiving."

Sockol says he was drawn to the field through personal experience: About a decade ago, he and his wife were having difficult determining why she could not become pregnant.

The pair looked into numerous studies on impediments to pregnancy and finally found their way to a Harvard University lab that was doing research on infertility.

Sockol was so impressed by the research and potential results that he acquired the technology and started a company.

The couple since has had two children.

The tests are used by physicians and their patients throughout the United States and Canada. The mantra of the 10-year-old enterprise is “helping doctors help couples."

Company officials say business is concentrated in the United States, where most insurance carriers pay for the service. In Europe and elsewhere such a procedure is not readily covered.

Sockol is a Brookline native who earned a master of science degree in clinical biochemistry from Northeastern University and a bachelor of science in chemistry from the University of Massachusetts.

He was the co-founder and senior vice president of Immunotech Corp., where he was responsible for the development and worldwide marketing of novel immunodiagnostic laboratory products.

He was manager of new products and regulatory affairs at Baxter Healthcare-Clinical Assays and held technical positions at Ciba-Corning.

“This company will always have a niche in the esoteric part of the market," said Howard Sterling, a principal in Laidlaw Ltd. in New York, an investment banking operation that is considering investing in the company.

“The big companies in this field do not want to get involved in individual tests or in tests from academic labs. Repromedix will always be a leader in its segment.