Jaguar Ventures increases investment in Bio-OriGyn (Spokane)

Jaguar Ventures http://www.jaguarventures.com of Spokane has invested an additional $300,000 in biotech company Bio-OriGyn.

Tom Sowa
Staff writer Spokesman Review

Bio-OriGyn, http://www.bioorigyn.com a privately held company, makes products designed to assist infertile couples.

Jaguar is a subsidiary of Spokane-based Metropolitan Mortgage and Securities Co. Jaguar made an initial investment of $1 million in Bio-OriGyn two years ago.

Jaguar and Bio-OriGyn are also negotiating the investment of additional funds, said Joanna Ellington, CEO of Bio-OriGyn.

Jaguar’s investment lets the company remain in Spokane instead of accepting investment that would have moved the firm to California or Seattle, said Ellington.

Bio-OriGyn will use the $300,000 to market its best-selling lubricant Pre-Seed, and to develop an e-commerce site for products. The e-commerce site is scheduled to launch next month.

Bio-OriGyn also is using a $100,000 National Institutes of Health grant to develop new products, Ellington said.

Pre-Seed has become the largest-selling nonprescription product available on Drugstore.com, Ellington said.

The company has seven employees and is developing other biomedical products related to infertility and health care.

In the works is the possible development of products that allow longer-term storage of blood platelets. That improvement would be a major benefit to health clinics and blood banks, which currently face a five-day shelf life for platelets.

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