CardiacAssist Builds a Bridge to the Next Bridge
Article preview reprinted from Start-Up - February, 2009
CardiacAssist operates in the market for acute heart failure, with TandemHeart a pump designed to reverse multi-organ failure, to help the heart recover, or at the very least, keep patients alive so they can move on to the next therapeutic option.
CardiacAssist Builds a Bridge to the Next Bridge
Article preview reprinted from Start-Up - February, 2009
The road to heart failure is on a steady decline. Patients get progressively worse as time goes by and that means they need different therapeutic options depending on where they are in their journey. Today's treatments for chronic heart failure leave large gaps in the continuum of care; drugs are used at the early stages, and at the end stage a heart transplantation is the only option. In between the extremes, says Michael Garippa, CEO of CardiacAssist Inc., there is a need for technologies to support the failing hearts of patients "for hours, days, weeks, and years; cardiac assist devices to reverse multi-organ failure, to help the heart recover, or at the very least, keep patients alive so they can move on to the next therapeutic option," he says.
CardiacAssist aims to fill those gaps. Its goal is to create a bridge to a decision or a bridge to another bridge, with TandemHeart a percutaneous centrifugal pump for the temporary support of heart failure patients. TandemHeart serves the acute heart failure market with several potential applications: to reverse cardiogenic shock, to support heart failure patients during risky surgical or percutaneous procedures, to support the heart during episodes of decompensated heart failure, to stabilize patients after cardiotomies, and other uses that are still emerging.
A lot has happened since START-UP spoke with Garippa in 2002. The company gained 510(k) clearance in 2003 and launched TandemHeart. In January 2009, CardiacAssist announced that more than 1,500 TandemHeart procedures have been performed, and the pace of adoption is accelerating; 800 procedures were done in the past year alone. Now, with sales of $10 million, CardiacAssist is no longer dependent on venture capital, of which it has raised $53 million to date. The company has achieved a steady 40% growth rate.
Indeed, the market sector in which CardiacAssist operates has seen a lot of change, with an increasing awareness of the expanded use of devices such as TandemHeart, and three acquisitions that suggest that large companies are aware of this market's potential, too. In 2005, major cardiac assist company Abiomed Inc. acquired Impella CardioSystems, the developer of a percutaneous ventricular assist device. The deal is potentially worth $75 million, if earn-outs and other milestones are achieved. Swedish cardiovascular company Getinge AB got in the game, too. In September 2008 Getinge announced that it would pay $841 million in cash for Datascope Corp., the market leader in intra-aortic balloon pumps (IABPs), the old but gold standard for cardiac support in acute settings. The Federal Trade Commission approved the merger in January 2009. In addition, Teleflex Inc. bought Arrow International Inc. for $2 billion in July 2007. This isn't a pure play, but Arrow is a major competitor in intra-aortic balloon pumps.
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Companies mentioned in this article:
Abiomed Inc.
Impella CardioSystems GMBH
CardiacAssist Inc.
Getinge AB
Datascope Corp.
St. Luke's Health System
Texas Heart Institute
Teleflex Inc.
Arrow International Inc.
Thoratec Corp.
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