VisCardia Completes $12.5 Million Series B Financing And Assets Transfer To Develop Proprietary Therapeutic Heart Failure Application And Appoints Michael Mirro M.D. As Director Of Medical Affairs
PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--VisCardia Inc, a privately held medical device developer, announced today it has completed series B financing and simultaneously obtained assets and technology rights from Inovise Medical, Inc., with a combined aggregate value of $12.5M, to continue development of its proprietary implantable heart failure therapy device. Investments were lead by Kinetic Capital Partners of Vancouver BC. Congruent to its objectives, Michael Mirro MD has been appointed as VisCardia’s Director of Medical Affairs.
“Our pre-clinical and human data demonstrates that our therapy chronically improves systolic and diastolic function without exhibiting adverse muscle fatigue”
Heart failure affects over 10 million patients in Europe and the United States resulting in over $50 billion health care costs per year. It is one of the leading causes of hospitalization for people older than 65, and results in impaired quality of life, anxiety, and depression. In the U.S. alone, over 520,000 newly diagnosed cases of moderate to severe heart failure occur every year are not currently indicated for any therapeutic heart failure device options.
VisCardia’s proprietary implantable system chronically stimulates the thoracic cavity musculature to mechanically augment cardiac systole and diastolic filling. The therapy is targeted for the significant majority of heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction and normal ventricular electrical conduction.
“Our pre-clinical and human data demonstrates that our therapy chronically improves systolic and diastolic function without exhibiting adverse muscle fatigue,” said Peter Bauer, VisCardia’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “This evidence, along with the pressing need for new chronic heart failure therapies in patients with normal electrical function, helped drive our successful round in preparation for the next round of studies using our newly developed system.”
Consistent with the company’s objectives, Dr. Michael Mirro M.D. has joined VisCardia as its Director of Medical Affairs. “As a pioneer in the field of cardiac electrophysiology, implantable device therapy, and clinical research, Dr. Mirro will be an integral part of VisCardia’s therapy development and commercialization process. He brings a deep clinical expertise with novel implantable device research practices,” said Peter Bauer. “As a renowned opinion leader in medical technology and clinical standards of care for implantable devices, Dr. Mirro’s expertise will help us shape clinical practice for our therapy to be adopted as a standard of care.”
“The clinical standard of care for heart failure has a well-known gap of device therapies for the significant majority of patients with reduced ejection fraction yet preserved ventricular synchrony,” said Dr Mirro, “I’m excited to join this initiative since preliminary data has demonstrated VisCardia’s unique therapy targets the primary issue with chronic heart failure, namely reduced hemodynamic function while operating at a delicate tipping point of filling and energetics. I am extremely excited to help support the team of extraordinary device scientists who will bring to market a novel device to manage heart failure, and bring life-saving technology to a large group of patients who cannot benefit from cardiac resynchronization therapy.”
About Michael Mirro M.D.
Dr. Michael J. Mirro is board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, cardiac electrophysiology, and geriatrics. He is a Certified Cardiac Device Specialist (IBHRE), and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American Heart Association, the American College of Chest Physicians, and the American College of Cardiology (ACC). He has conducted clinical research studies as a principal investigator for over 100 trials and has published over 40 scientific articles and book chapters.
Dr. Mirro currently serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Academic Research Officer at Parkview Health, Director of the Mirro Center for Research and Innovation at Parkview, and Clinical Professor of Medicine at Indiana University. He is a trustee and chair of the Academic Affairs Committee at Indiana University.
About VisCardia
VisCardia based in Portland, OR is developing a novel implantable device therapy for treating heart failure, a condition that afflicts 10 million patients in the U.S. and Europe. To learn more about VisCardia, visit: http://www.viscardia.com
