Twenty years of getting this right

AVABIO designs and supports infusion and sampling systems for preclinical research. Mark Crowe, our Managing Director, led Access Technologies, originator of the first implantable vascular access port for both human and animal use, from 1996 to 2001. He then directed the clinical, preclinical and OEM divisions at Deltec from 2001 to 2005, through its 2002 change of name to Smiths Medical. That business is now part of ICU Medical.

We have seen which designs survive a twelve-week study and which fail at week three, across species, vessels and access sites. Describe a protocol and you are talking to someone who has probably built something close to it.

What we do differently

We design backwards from the problems in existing technology. Vascular access ports had been used for long-term ambulatory infusion for years with the same recurring failures: needle retention, dead space in the port body and catheter, occlusion and necrosis. The Cath-In-Cath 2 exists to remove those. The first modular rodent harness system exists because replacing a whole harness over one contaminated connection is waste.

We will also tell you the best technical solution when it is not one of our products. That has cost us orders and earned us customers.

We sell the whole system rather than a shelf of parts. The implanted port and catheter we design and manufacture ourselves. The pump, the jacket and the tether we specify, validate against that implant and supply alongside it, named as what they are and made by who makes them. We will not sell you a general catalog of laboratory supplies. The infusion and access system is a hard enough engineering problem to be worth a company.

First to market

Several technologies now standard in this field were commercialized here first: the Cath-In-Cath 2 port system, tapered and co-extruded catheters, modular rodent harness and tether systems, wireless infusion pump monitoring, and the MagnaPort. We were also first to bring clinical-grade ambulatory infusion pumps to the laboratory animal market: the Crono PCA 5 and Crono PCA 50, and the 6000 CMS multi-therapy pump. AVA-branded ambulatory syringe pumps appear in published non-human primate and rabbit infusion models from 2008.

If your protocol needs something that is not in anyone’s catalog yet, we have built that before, and the part number it gets is yours to reorder.

What we can build

Every device on this site is manufactured in house: our tooling, our materials, our builds. A protocol-specific part is a normal order here rather than an exception.

• Materials. Thermoplastic polyurethane of the grade used in human catheters, silicone, co-extruded polyethylene and non-DEHP PVC, titanium, Dacron. Alternate materials including Pebax, PTFE and PFA on request.
• Range. Catheters from 1 French to 9 French. The common laboratory animal species are catalog items, and we have built to order for others besides, both common and exotic. Vascular, intrathecal, duodenal, biliary and subcutaneous routes.
• Modifications. Perfusion holes, bead placement, Dacron cuff or mesh, slit and burp valves, stepped connections, specified durometer, custom lengths and tip geometry.
• Finishing. Solvent-polished tips, and sterilization by ethylene oxide unless you order otherwise.
• Part numbering. Anything built to a protocol is assigned its own catalog number and stays reorderable for the life of the program.

A study that runs for years can reorder the exact device it validated on, by part number.

Who we work with

Our systems are used at leading contract research organizations, pharmaceutical companies, government laboratories and universities around the world. We sell direct: the people who design and build the device are the people you deal with, not a reseller or a sales desk.

Our Chief Surgical Advisor

David Moddrelle, SRS, joined AVABIO as Chief Surgical Advisor in 2026. Over forty years in laboratory animal research, thirty-five of them as a surgeon, certified by the Academy of Surgical Research. He places jugular, femoral, duodenal, intrathecal and bile access in NHP, canine and swine, and is available for implantation planning, surgical setup, training in pre-operative, intra-operative and post-operative care, and long-term maintenance. He will also perform the implantations on contract, or train your surgical staff to. See surgical services.

Mark has spent thirty years designing these devices; David has spent thirty-five putting them in animals. Both halves of the same problem, under one roof. More on surgical services.