CardiAQ Valve Technologies (CVT) receives $750,000 'translational' funding from Broadview Ventures Inc.

CVT's percutaneous mitral valve replacement (PMVR) platform might be the 'next big thing' in the cardiac cath lab

"We expect to do for mitral heart valve replacement what CoreValve has achieved with aortic heart valve replacement."- J. Brent Ratz, President and CEO, CVT 

WINCHESTER, Mass. -- CardiAQ Valve Technologies (CVT) today announced that it has received $750,000 in seed or 'translational' funding from Broadview Ventures Inc.--a company associated with Paris-based Fondation Leducq--whose mission is to accelerate the development of technology in cardiovascular and neurovascular disease through targeted investment. The funding will be used to further develop CVT's platform with an initial indication for percutaneous mitral valve replacement (PMVR). Total funding in CVT is now $1.5 million.

CVT is developing innovative approaches to heart valve replacement and is initially focused on percutaneous mitral valve replacement (PMVR). More than two million people suffer from Mitral Regurgitation (MR), yet only about 80,000 repair or replacement procedures take place each year. The significant treatment gap is largely due to risks associated with currently available mitral valve surgical procedures. While several companies are attempting to develop percutaneous approaches to repair the mitral valve, these technologies have limited applicability due to the heterogeneous nature of the disease and, so far, have had difficulty demonstrating efficacy equivalent to surgical approaches. Likewise, there are several technologies being developed for catheter-based replacement of aortic valves. But all of them rely on radial force for fixation in heavily calcified leaflets, which is not suitable for the mitral valve position.

"The move from basic science to clinical evaluation is especially difficult and expensive," said David Tancredi, M.D., Ph.D., Scientific Director of Fondation Leducq. "Because funding at the early stage of a medtech company's evolution is particularly difficult to obtain, promising new technology may simply be abandoned. In CVT's case, our goal is to prevent that from happening."

"No other heart valve company has a frame that is self-positioning, self-anchoring, and self-conforming in three dimensions. Consequently, CVT's technology has the unique potential to treat aortic stenosis, aortic regurgitation, and mitral regurgitation," said Joseph Bavaria, M.D., Vice Chief, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Hospital of Pennsylvania; and Professor of Surgery, Univ. of Pennsylvania. As a member of St. Jude Medical's Structural Heart Advisory Board and a Principal Investigator for the Edwards Lifesciences "PARTNER" trial, which is evaluating a new transcatheter aortic valve device, Dr. Bavaria is well-versed in the new technologies being pursued within the heart valve space. "In vivo feasibility studies strongly suggest that CVT's PMVR approach may provide effective treatment of MR," added Dr. Bavaria, who is also Chairman of CVT's Scientific Advisory Board.

"This sector is filled with significant opportunity," said Brent Ratz, CVT's President and CEO. "CoreValve and others have demonstrated already how catheter-based heart valve replacement technology can address aortic stenosis. We believe that our platform has the unique capability to do the same thing for mitral regurgitation, and we are pleased to have Broadview's support as we continue to move this exciting technology forward."

About CardiAQ Valve Technologies

Privately held CVT, headquartered in Winchester, Mass., has developed a proprietary system for percutaneous mitral valve replacement (PMVR). Through the combination of a unique fixation mechanism and a novel delivery catheter, physicians will be able to accurately and securely implant a new mitral valve within a beating heart, thus avoiding open-heart surgery. The CVT technology represents a platform that can be adapted to treat any valve within the heart. Ultimately, the CVT procedure could be performed in a cardiac catheterization laboratory similar to angioplasty or stenting, resulting in less trauma to the patient and substantial cost-savings to the healthcare system.