Artery blockage treatments, especially as it relates to peripheral artery disease and atherosclerosis, are generally invasive treatments that require catheters, stents and the like.
Now a very early stage Minnesota company, which has licensed technology from the University of Minnesota, is aiming to change the paradigm.
International Cardio Corp. wants to use High Intensity Focused Ultrasound technology to treat PAD noninvasively. The technology adapts ultrasound imaging technology giving it the ability to generate heat and that heat can then be applied directly to the blood in the capillary that feeds the plaque, explains CEO Dennis Sellke. When that heat is applied, it raises the temperature of the blood to 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit), thereby killing the tissue in the lesion by starving it of its “nutrient source.”
Unlike, ablation techniques, which also uses heat, there is no issue of tissue charring, Sellke declared.
The technology was developed by Emad Ebbinni, a professor in the University of Minnesota’s Electrical and Computer Engineering department. Sellke replaced Donald Knight as CEO in mid-2011. He is the only employee of the company.
Currently, International Cardio is conducting animal research trials at the University of Minnesota and is using $300,000 it has just raised in seed capital to fund that enterprise. Sellke hopes to raise another $200,000 in the seed round.
Sellke said that the technology could just be added to existing ultrasound equipment and would not require a lot of money to commercialize. But he didn’t specify how much money he was hoping to raise if the animal studies demonstrated the technology’s efficacy.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The benefits, if this technology were to succeed and be commercialized, appears to be in the realm of early intervention. Invasive procedures like angioplasty are typically prescribed to people whose arteries are 70 percent or more occluded, Sellke said. But there are those whose arteries are not as severely blocked, but they are not treated for several years. And that’s where International Cardio could make a difference.
“This technology would be a complement to existing treatments,” Sellke said.
But what about replacing those treatments completely? Sellke said that it “takes time to alter the standard of care,” especially if the outcomes are as good as they are in the case of stents and angioplasty. And there are other issues of reimbursement and getting the product through regulatory approvals that often stand in the way of wide adoption.
But Sellke is not too preoccupied with either the regulatory environment or reimbursement issues. Those are to be contended with later. Currently, Sellke is focused on completing the animal testing, which he believes will be done in the first half of the year.
We are at the research level,” he said, signaling that other product-specific issues will be handled in the second half of 2012.
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