LoneStar Heart Inc.

Article preview from Start-Up - June, 2013

LoneStar Heart's injectable biopolymer Algisyl-LVR represents a new advanced HF treatment strategy based on a medically accepted principle that a reduction in muscle tension and wall stress of the dilated heart will improve its function. The company, which originally envisioned Algisyl-LVR as a carrier for targeted delivery of biologics, drugs, or stem cells, discovered in animal studies that use of the biopolymer by itself had a profound effect on improving the mechanics of the heart.

LoneStar Heart Inc.

Article preview from Start-Up - June, 2013

Regenerative medicine is an emerging technology that holds the promise of restoring function to aging or damaged tissues in many burdensome conditions, including cardiovascular disease. One application in which effective treatment solutions are urgently needed is heart failure, a progressive, increasingly prevalent disease that costs the US health care system more than $30 billion a year – a figure that is forecast by the American Heart Association to rise to $70 billion by 2030. Research and development efforts over many years have attempted to address the pathological remodeling of the left ventricle that occurs in advanced HF, but no effective mechanical or pharmaceutical options are yet available. That's where Southern California-based start-up LoneStar Heart Inc. comes in, with its injectable biopolymer Algisyl-LVR, a regenerative treatment strategy for HF that is demonstrating in early clinical trials its ability to reduce muscle tension and wall stress in the dilated heart, thus improving function.

LoneStar Heart, founded in 2010 and backed by Texas-based investors and two Chinese venture funds, is advancing a broad portfolio of regenerative products to restore the failing heart’s structure and function, in collaboration with the Texas Heart Institute (THI), the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW), and a network of clinician advisors. The company was co-founded by James Willerson, president, medical director, and director of cardiology research at THI, Eric Olson, professor and chairman of the department of molecular biology at UTSW, and Olav Bergheim, a 30-year life sciences veteran with a 20-year management career at Baxter Healthcare, and extensive experience in the venture world as a general partner at Domain Associates LLC and founder of Fjord Ventures.

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