Dong-a ST said Monday it has concluded an exclusive domestic sales contract for Meditulip’s endoscopic automatic staplers.

Under the contract, Meditulip is to supply its automatic endoscopic staplers, Endo Blossom and Endo Stem, exclusively to Dong-a ST. Dong-a ST will sell and market the products.

Meditulip aims to receive medical item approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Endo Blossom and Endo Stem in the third quarter. If it gets the nod, Meditulip will become the first Korean company to get the go-ahead for an automatic endoscopic stapler.

An automatic endoscopic stapler is a disposable medical device for cutting and repairing tissues during surgery. Physicians prefer its use due to the difficulty of cutting and repairing tissues during surgery. Medical professionals also use the device in various surgeries as it reduces operation time and recovery period by not requiring threads.

Meditulip’s automatic endoscopic staplers apply the Novel Asymmetrical Linear Stapler (NALS) technology, developed and patented by the company for the first time worldwide.

The NALS technology in Meditulip’s automatic endoscopic staplers minimizes tissue excision during a biopsy for cancer cell identification, whereas existing automatic endoscopic staplers resect tissues more than necessary. In addition, by minimizing staple usage on the tissue, Meditulip’s endoscopic automatic staplers prevent excessive excision by retaining tissues and therefore are easy to identify remaining cancer cells.

“We will lead the automatic endoscopic stapler market based on Meditulip’s excellent technology and Dong-a ST’s sales capacity,” a Dong-a ST official said. “We will do our best to make endoscopic stapler business a key business in Dong-a ST’s medical device division.”