Helping Innovations Become Reality

The Tibbe™ Catheter: A Better Solution for Women

Medbio partnered with SBE Medical to bring the Tibbe™ catheter to market, addressing significant issues with current devices used by female patients. Annually, about 3.5 million catheters are placed in the U.S., with a large percentage of patients being female. Existing catheters often cause problems like skin irritation, leakage, incontinence, and a complete loss of dignity, highlighting the need for a better solution.

The Partnership and Medbio's Role

The Tibbe™ was created by Mary Tibbe, a former Clinical Nurse Specialist, who collaborated with Dan Byers and Nicholas Borgdorff of SBE Medical to refine the concept and navigate commercialization. SBE Medical, specializing in the development of medical devices, engaged Medbio—an experienced medical parts manufacturer—to finalize the design and prepare it for production.

Medbio delivered innovative, cost-cutting solutions by:

• Creating a specially designed thermoformed tray for cost-effective packaging that protects product integrity during shipping while keeping costs low.
• Teaming with SBE to learn how to improve the part design for better comfort, effectiveness and overall manufacturability.
• Designing and building tooling, including a two-plus-two tool(two rings plus two cups), to optimize molding efficiencies andreduce costs.
• Developing a full, cost-effective product process—from tool design to molding to final packaging—all in one unified space to streamline manufacturing.

SBE Medical's President, Dan Byers, praised Medbio's engineering expertise for producing their device with high quality, real-world functionality, and affordability, which allowed SBE to keep all manufacturing stateside.

The Tibbe™ is now patented, ready for large-scale production, and currently being tested in hospitals and clinics as it moves toward widespread commercialization.