Past Winners
Transcatheter Technologies - Best Start-Up 2011
Dr. Wolfgang Goetz & Team
TRANSCATHETER TECHNOLOGIES is developing a unique aortic valve implantation system that will increase the safety and durability of aortic valve implantation. Founder and Cardiac Surgeon Dr. Wolfgang Goetz believes TRINITY is the next generation transcatheter aortic valve system that is a repositionable transcatheter aortic valve system allowing physicians to precisely control the speed and position of valve deployment and to fully reposition the valve during implantation. The TRINITY valved stent provides better sealing and anchoring. The TRINITY valve prosthesis will be pre-mounted on a detachable tip that is connected just before implantation. The TRINITY Zero Pressure CrimpingTM preserves leaflet integrity and avoids crushing of the leaflets when the valve frame is folded or expanded to achieve a longer durability. The company believes that this will allow the treatment of patients with a higher life expectancy
The company was founded in 2009 and is privately held company located in Regensburg, Germany. They raised an initial seed investment of €600,000 from private investors High-Tech Gründerfonds GmbH and Technologie-Seed-Beteiligungsfonds Bayern GmbH & Co. KG. In 2011 the company raised a further €1.7 million in a Series A round lead by Tubaflex and Dr. Rolf Käse (former CEO of Berlin Heart GmbH and Impella CardioSystems).
Contact:
Dr. Wolfgang Goetz Tel: +49 170 6309920
Links
www.transcathetertechnologies.com
Flux Medical - Best Blue Sky Idea 2011
Glenn Van Langenhove and Bruno Schwagten
Flux Medical have developed a novel approach towards Pulmonary Vein Isolation (PVI), an alternative treatment for Atrial Fibrillation (AF). AF Is a disturbance of the heart rhythm that is a common cause of stroke and death, and whose market is worth in excess of 20 billion US dollars/year.
Anti-arrhythmic drugs are the current treatment of choice but carry a huge recurrence rate (up to 90%), and have detrimental side effects. Pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) showed promising results but is hampered by shortcomings of the current methods.
Flux Medical have developed a new technique for PVI that provides a proposed complete pulmonary vein isolation, shortened procedural time, reduction in cost, and a simpler approach, all with improved safety profile. They envisage a new treatment for AF provided by interventional cardiologists. The procedure is already reimbursed and so they see a clear route to market.
The technique is based on the heating properties of ferromagnetic materials when they are brought into an alternating magnetic field. When their device is implanted into the PV, and the magnetic field generator is activated, extremely precise energy can be delivered to that implant non-invasively, and ablation can be delivered.
Flux Medical is incorporated in Belgium and has successfully performed initial cadaver experiments, explanted pig hearts in a flow circuit, with the first prototypes. Flux is on the verge of initiating trials on living animals. Progress in both implant as well as energy delivery system is on schedule and the company believe that they will get the technology to clinics in 2014.
Contact:
Glenn Van Langenhove, CEO, Tel +324 97626444, glenn.vanlangenhove@fluxmedical.com
Anne-Rose Gustin, COO, Tel +324 98904430, annerose.gustin@fluxmedical.com
Links
www.fluxmedical.com
