I-Flow Corp.: The Irvine maker of portable...

I-Flow Corp.: The Irvine maker of portable intravenous pumps said Monday that it has signed a three-year marketing deal with an Illinois medical device firm to distribute its two lines of pumps.

I-Flow’s contract with SoloPak Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Elk Grove, Ill., is expected to generate at least $2 million in the first year for the financially struggling start-up company.

The company, founded in 1985, has been limping along, reporting a string of losses that forced it to raise $4.5 million in a stock offering in December to help pay for a restructuring of its distribution and marketing operation.

Most recently, the company reported a first-quarter loss of $725,000, or 9 cents a share, on revenue of $761,000. That compared to a loss of $649,000, or 11 cents a share, on revenue of $1.1 million for the same period last year.

The company did not disclose the revenue estimates for the contract’s second and third years.

Under the contract, which became effective immediately, privately held SoloPak will market and distribute I-Flow’s SideKick and Paragon pumps, both of which are hand-held devices that automatically regulate drug flow into the blood stream for chemotherapy or pain-ridden patients at home or at work.