The Memo: Aurie Rethinking the Single-Use Model for Intermittent Catheters

Under the direction of Founder & CEO Souvik Paul, Aurie is developing a reusable intermittent catheter system designed to make advanced infection-reduction features more accessible to people who catheterize multiple times each day. The company’s FDA-cleared system pairs a reusable no-touch catheter with a portable washer-disinfector that automatically cleans, disinfects, and lubricates the catheter between uses. With its first commercial launch planned through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Aurie is building toward a broader vision: using reusability not only to reduce the cost and waste associated with intermittent catheterization, but also as a platform for technologies that could enable earlier detection and more individualized diagnosis of complicated urinary tract infections.

Origin Story

Aurie began with a problem Souvik encountered through his own family.

12 years ago, his sister-in-law, Carina, sustained a spinal cord injury in a car crash. She began relying on intermittent catheterization four to six times each day, a routine she will continue for the rest of her life. As Souvik learned more about her care, he saw a disconnect between the technology available to catheter users and the products many could realistically access.

“What I learned from her was that the catheter she could actually get and the catheter she should have were two different products,” Souvik said.

At the time, Souvik was beginning graduate school in human-centered design. He decided to focus his work on products and services that could improve health and quality of life for people with spinal cord injuries, eventually designing a precursor to what would become the Aurie System.

Two years later, Souvik joined Johnson & Johnson as a design strategist focused on vision care. The experience gave him another perspective on bringing healthcare technologies to market.

“I also learned how large corporates handle innovation, and saw firsthand that it was easier for a large corporate to acquire a new innovation than build it from scratch internally,” he said. “I became convinced that for the Aurie System to become a reality, I would need to build the product and scale it.”

That conviction ultimately became Aurie.

The Current Landscape

Approximately 600,000 people in the United States rely on intermittent catheters, primarily because of spinal cord injury, spina bifida, and multiple sclerosis, according to Aurie. Many catheterize four to six or more times each day, making the device a persistent part of everyday life.

The standard of care remains a single-use catheter that is discarded after each catheterization, which can amount to roughly 2,400 devices per patient each year. Within that market is what Souvik describes as a “quality ladder,” ranging from basic uncoated catheters to hydrophilic-coated products and, at the top, closed-system and no-touch catheters incorporating features intended to reduce contamination during insertion.

The problem is that access tends to narrow as the technology becomes more sophisticated.

Aurie cites published registry data associating integrated no-touch features with 62% lower odds of infection. Yet according to Souvik, these premium catheters cost approximately $24,000 annually at list price, compared with roughly $6,200 for a standard catheter, and only about 5% of Medicare beneficiaries receive access to closed-system and no-touch products.

“So the safest product on the market is, for the large majority of users, unavailable,” Souvik said.

Aurie is attempting to change that equation through reusability.

Inside the Innovation

The Aurie System consists of three components: a no-touch catheter engineered for up to 100 uses, pre-packaged cleaning supplies, and a portable washer-disinfector.

The catheter incorporates an introducer tip and protective sleeve designed to prevent users from touching the catheter shaft, along with a handle to aid insertion, a Council tip for complete bladder emptying, and a gel-based lubricant.

What happens after catheterization is central to Aurie’s approach.

“We challenged ourselves with making the reuse process as easy as throwing out a single-use catheter,” Souvik said. “That’s why we miniaturized room-scale automated endoscope reprocessor technology into a footprint that can fit easily into a backpack.”

After use, the catheter is placed inside the washer-disinfector, which runs an automated cleaning, high-level disinfection, and lubrication cycle using tap water and a pre-packaged five-cycle supply pod. According to Aurie, the user spends less than 30 seconds loading the catheter, emptying wastewater from the prior cycle, and adding less than one cup of tap water. Once daily, the supply pod is replaced, and the device is charged.

Each catheter also contains an RFID tag. The reprocessor authenticates the catheter, tracks the number of cycles, and prevents further use once it reaches its 100-use limit.

For Souvik, however, the significance of reusability goes beyond cleaning and reusing a catheter. It changes the economics of what Aurie can incorporate into each device.

“A hundred-use catheter changes what you can afford to build,” he said. “If incumbents can only spend 20¢ per catheter, we can spend $20.”

That model could eventually allow Aurie to incorporate technologies that would be difficult to justify economically in a disposable device. The company is developing advanced materials and sensor-enabled catheters and drainage bags capable of measuring parameters including temperature, nitrites, voided volume, pH, and leukocyte esterase.

“Reusability gives us something no disposable manufacturer has: a device that stays with the patient and that we can instrument,” Souvik said.

Aurie believes collecting those measurements at every catheterization could eventually create a longitudinal urinary dataset that supports earlier detection and more individualized diagnosis of complicated urinary tract infections.

Progress and Milestones

Aurie received FDA Class II De Novo clearance for the Aurie System in 2026, establishing a new regulatory classification for reusable intermittent catheters under 21 CFR 876.5120. The company is currently pre-revenue, with its design locked and in-house GMP-compliant manufacturing being built out in Florida ahead of commercialization. Aurie also added serious strategic heft to its Board of Directors recently, with Manu Varma, the former North America President of Coloplast, joining as Executive Board Chair. Coloplast is the largest strategic in the intermittent catheter space, with approximately $1 billion in catheter sales annually.

Its first market is expected to be the Department of Veterans Affairs. Aurie plans to begin a Limited Market Release in 2027 across three VA Spinal Cord Injury Hub Hospitals, targeting approximately 200 users. The company intends to use feedback from long-term daily use to inform a second-generation system that Souvik says will be approximately 40% smaller and is targeted for 510(k) clearance in 2028.

Aurie has also submitted an application for new HCPCS Level II codes for reusable catheter systems and is targeting broader Medicare market entry with the V2 design in 2028. In parallel, the company is beginning its European regulatory work, with CE Mark targeted for 2029.

Beyond the core catheter system, Aurie is co-developing a reusable urine drainage bag with the VA and advancing its sensor technology with research partners at Binghamton University. The company has received a $1.3 million federal grant to support bringing that technology to patients by 2029.

To date, Aurie has been built on approximately $15 million in funding, including $10 million in venture investment and $5.1 million in non-dilutive grants. The company is now raising a $15 million Series A to support VA commercialization, reimbursement efforts, European market entry, and development of its second-generation system.

For Souvik, those milestones are steps toward a larger ambition than simply replacing one catheter with another.

“Our mission is to make life-threatening infections a thing of the past for intermittent catheter users,” he said. “At the start, that looks like making existing superior technologies more accessible through reusability, but as time goes on, we plan to develop completely novel technologies to aid in the avoidance, detection, and treatment of complicated urinary tract infections, all made feasible through reusability.”

Join Us at LSI Europe ‘26

Souvik has been selected to present at LSI Europe '26, September 28th–October 1st, in front of hundreds of global medical technology companies. Join us in welcoming him to the event in Barcelona, where he will share the latest updates on Aurie’s technology and development.