VasoStar Awarded Grant for Occlusion Revascularization Device

VasoStar Inc., a Joint Venture Company founded by Frantz Medical Group, Mentor, Ohio and EYoCa Ltd., an Israeli based company, today announced that it has been awarded a grant to develop and commercialize a novel electromagnetic guidewire system for penetrating through vascular Chronic Total Occlusions, in lieu of invasive open heart surgery such as Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG).

The grant was awarded by the Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center, or GCIC, a $250million Ohiobased product commercialization consortium led by the Cleveland Clinic. This grant will help support the design and development of the guidewire and catheter system in preparation for FDA and CE regulatory submissions.

“We are delighted and grateful to have the support of GCIC,” said Stephanie Harrington, chief operating officer of VasoStar. “GCIC’s grant will allow us to complete the technology transfer from Israel to our Ohio operation and further the development of an effective solution to crossing CTO’s with a guidewire which will improve patient outcome without altering the clinician’s guidewire technique. In addition, this grant offers VasoStar the ability to build and expand Northeast Ohio’s cardiovascular medical device engineering and manufacturing competency in partnership with the Cleveland Clinic and GCIC.”

With the assistance of GCIC’s grant, VasoStar will develop the first guidewire system which offers the clinician ondemand CTOcrossing assistance from the guidewire’s embedded miniaturized electromagnetic engines, with launch expected in 2011.

About VasoStar Inc.
VasoStar Inc. was established to develop and commercialize a solution to the unmet need for a CTO crossing percutaneously: a miniaturized electromagnetic solenoid that produces longitudinal vibration at the guidewire tip for safely penetrating Chronic Total Occlusions without significantly changing the clinician’s guidewire technique and feel. VasoStar has exclusively licensed this technology from EYoCa Medical Ltd., an Israeli company founded by three Israeli scientists, including VasoStar’s Chief Technology Officer, Mr. Ran Carmeli, and two leading U.S. interventional cardiovascular clinicians and researchers, Dr. Donald Baim, Chief Scientific and Medical Officer, Boston Scientific (previously Professor, Harvard Medical School) and Professor Peter Fitzgerald, Stanford University School of Medicine. Frantz Medical Group (FMG), established in 1979, is an Ohiobased consortium of companies specializing in the development and manufacturing of medical devices and diagnostics. FMG has majority ownership of VasoStar Inc. and will incubate VasoStar’s initial development effort.

http://www.frantzgroup.com