Meet the Network: Jeroen Kodde

The Life Sciences & Health ecosystem within the Rotterdam region consists of a wide network of companies and other organizations, such as educational institutes and healthcare providers, innovating in healthcare. As Rotterdam Square, we would like you to get to know our partners in this network. This time we introduce to you: Jeroen Kodde, CEO at Kaminari Medical.

Could you first introduce yourself?

I am Jeroen Kodde and CEO of Kaminari Medical, a spinoff of the department of Bio Medical Engineering of Erasmus MC. I have a Masters degree in Medicine, worked as a transplant coordinator for Eurotransplant and the heart transplant programme of the UMC Utrecht. I have been a senior industry advisor for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and for the last fifteen years I have been involved in getting medical startups into the clinic.

What does your company do?

Kaminari Medical develops an innovative heart catheter to assess the plaques that block the coronary arteries, especially the vulnerable plaques, that have a high risk of rupturing and causing an infarction. With this catheter we can make an image of the inside of the arteries and give the doctors what we call “therapy guidance” to treat these plaques optimally. In theory this can prevent 250.000 unnecessary re-catherizations, deaths and € 2 billion Euro’s per year worldwide. The technology has been invented at Erasmus MC and together we are preparing for the first-in-human clinical study at the department of interventional cardiology.

What brings the Life Sciences & Health network to your company?

We were the first tenants at the Erasmus MC Campus. Being at the Campus gives us the opportunity to closely work together with the various research and clinical departments, doctors and scientists to bring our invention to clinical use. This is an example how we can deliver as a startup together with and within the Erasmus MC focussed and practical knowledge valorisation.

Date: December 12, 2023