Article preview from Start-Up - April 01, 2011
Altura Medical is developing a percutaneous, low-profile endovascular stent-graft for the treatment of AAAs designed to eliminate some of the major issues associated with conventional endograft procedure safety, efficacy and complexity. The company's plan is to provide a flexible, off-the-shelf, ultra-low profile device with an industry-first 12 French inside diameter. The Altura system may be placed routinely in the cath lab as an outpatient procedure, and in more difficult AAA anatomies that are usually referred for open surgery, including those patients with short necks or smaller, tortuous iliac arteries.
Article preview from Start-Up - April 01, 2011
Some start-ups may consider the US endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR) market to be downright intimidating, with 90% share currently cornered by three formidable players: Medtronic Inc., Cook Medical Inc. and WL Gore & Associates Inc. However, after witnessing Endologix Inc.'s rise to a current 7 to 8% share of the US market since its IPO in 1996 and subsequent FDA approval of the Powerlink EVAR device in 2004, and robust product line and sales expansion ever since, emerging companies with innovative, patient pool-expanding technologies have reason to be optimistic. Altura Medical Inc., of San Clemente, CA, believes it has what it takes to succeed in this rapidly evolving and vastly underserved marketplace.
Altura was founded in October 2008 out of the medical device incubator Intersect Partners LLC. The company is developing a percutaneous, low-profile endovascular stent-graft for the treatment of AAAs designed to eliminate some of the major issues associated with conventional AAA endograft procedure safety, efficacy and complexity. Altura's plan is to provide a flexible, off-the-shelf, ultra-low-profile device with an industry first 12 French (F) inside diameter (14F outside diameter). The Altura system may be placed routinely in the cath lab as an outpatient procedure, and in more difficult AAA anatomies that are usually referred for open surgery, including those patients with short necks or smaller, tortuous iliac arteries. The start-up has been staying below the radar until it has some clinical results, which it's expecting later this year, according to George Wallace, Altura's chairman and acting president and CEO.
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