CLEVELAND, July 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — One of Frantz Medical
Group’s (FMG) subsidiaries, VasoStar Inc., Mentor, Ohio today
announced that it has been awarded an Ohio Third Frontier grant to
further develop and commercialize a novel electromagnetic guidewire
system for penetrating through vascular Chronic Total Occlusions
(CTOs), in lieu of invasive open heart surgery such as Coronary
Artery Bypass Graft (CABG).
VasoStar’s primary clinical development partner is the Cleveland
Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute. The VasoStar advisory
team consists of world renowned cardiovascular clinicians including
Dr. Patrick Whitlow, Director of Interventional Cardiology,
Cleveland Clinic; Dr. Kiyo Fukamachi, Director of the
Cardiovascular Dynamics Laboratory, Lerner Research Institute,
Cleveland Clinic; Dr. Marc Penn, Director of Research, Summa
Cardiovascular Institute; and Dr. Peter Fitzgerald, Director of the
Center for Cardiovascular Technology and Director of the
Cardiovascular Core Analysis Laboratory (CCAL), Stanford
University Medical School. VasoStar has also received grant support
and technical and commercial counsel from the Global Cardiovascular
Innovation Center (GCIC), an Ohio based product commercialization
consortium led by the Cleveland Clinic.
This $1,000,000 grant, in addition to FMG’s financial and
engineering support, will allow VasoStar to complete development of
and collect additional safety data for the guidewire and catheter
system in preparation for FDA and CE regulatory submissions.
The VasoStar technology has been demonstrated to be safe in
an animal study performed at the Lerner Research Institute. A
number of preeminent interventional cardiologists have provided
positive feedback regarding the VasoStar system’s usability and
potential effectiveness following hands-on experience with
prototype devices in arterial pathway models with simulated
blockages. With the assistance of the Ohio Thir
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