MUNICH - A SINGAPORE doctor-cum-inventor of medical gadgets is being courted by pharmaceutical giants at the on-going European Society of Cardiology Congress.

These big boys are all keen on buying over his company HealthStats International because of his invention of a watch-sized blood pressure monitor, which takes readings of blood pressure in the wearer's central aorta.

These companies want control of his company because the United States Food and Drug Administration told them it would fast-track the approval of their new hypertension drugs if these medicines can improve blood flow in the aorta.

But general practitioner Ting Choon Meng is not biting at offers of US$300 million to buy his company, which makes the BPro gadget.

'I'm not selling. I want to develop it further,' he said of his company, which already has 10 patented medical devices.

The patented BPro has drawn good reviews. It is the only non-invasive device that takes readings of blood pressure in the central aorta.

This has been proven in several trials to be a much better indication of how well the heart and brain are working because the readings are taken from nearer the heart, the seat of the hypertensive patient's problem.

Read the full story in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times.