Capital to Fund Company Further Towards Early Feasibility Study of 1st Gen. Circulatory Assist Support Catheter
Press Release – Salt Lake City, Utah Nov. 2, 2017 – Second Heart Assist, Inc. announced today that it raised $1.0 million in a Series A financing. The financing comes on the heels of recent presentations at Cardiac Recovery UCARs, CRT D.C., the Intl. Academy of Cardiology and TCT 2017 in Denver this week of supporting pre-clinical data including that from Tufts Medical Center recently announced.
“This funding provides us with the resources to get closer to our next milestone goal of an Early Feasibility Study,” commented Dr. Leslie Miller, Second Heart Assist’s Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder. “This round of financing, along with the support and expertise of amazing Board of Advisors and team members, will allow us to further realize our vision of providing a superior circulatory assist device for patients in need.”
The Second Heart Assist, Inc. team is developing two models of their device.
I. Circulatory assist pump within a bare aortic stent at tip of a 13.8FR catheter for temporary support.
II. Wireless powered chronic implant that is removable and has both continuous and pulsatile flow.
Second Heart Assist’s unique pipeline of patented and patent pending innovations include:
1st Generation
- 14FR catheter delivery.
- The highest flow rates at the lowest RPMs.
- Stable aortic positioning.
- Liquid cooling.
- Flexible coiled drive shaft.
- Hemolysis reduction protective cage/aortic stent design.
2nd Generation
- Wireless power.
- Harmonic resonant vibration energy to protect against thrombosis.
- Pulsatile and continuous flow.
- Coil micro implants for controlled protein expressions and blood pressure + inflammation management.
“Our incredible team has worked hard to bring this project this far with far less funds than customarily used to get to this stage of development. This is a company built on sweat equity by people that really care about bringing a better circulatory support solution to patients in need.” stated Jeff Donofrio, President of Second Heart Assist, Inc.
Second Heart Assist, Inc. previously announced the licensing of a series of issued U.S. patents from Caltech The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA and has dozens of new patent claims filed and pending with the U.S.P.T.O.
The team has begun collaboration with researchers in Australia in converting the 1st generation device to complete wireless non-invasive power thus eliminating the need for an external drive shaft and motor.
At recent American College of Cardiology and Heart Failure Society America Annual Meetings Second Heart Assist has convened expert panels of over 17 of heart failure physician leaders from leading U.S. institutions to provide input on the product design and clinical plan including protocol development.
“We led this investment round because after we consulted with numerous opinion leaders in the field we came to believe in the product pipeline. We also believe in the all star experienced team they have assembled to execute on their plan. Since we have followed them over the past 12 months they have reached every milestone they set out to reach on time and on budget. This is always a good sign from a investor point of view.” stated Dr. Dinesh Patel of Patel Family Investments
Second Heart Assist, Inc. is currently incubating at Leonhardt’s Launchpads Utah, Inc. in Salt Lake City and Leonhardt’s Launchpads in Los Angeles with research, performance and safety testing on going in California, Utah, Australia, Minneapolis and Boston.
“We are very pleased to receive investments from key strategic partners in this round in developing the product line including Biomerics Advanced Catheter and a number of advising heart failure, cardiology and nephrology industry leaders. Our plan is to raise capital milestone by milestone as we advance our technology platform forward.” states Asli Gozoren, Director of Investor Relations, Second Heart Assist, Inc. and Leonhardt’s Launchpads by Cal-X Stars Business Accelerator, Inc.
“We believe our patented and patent pending technology platform in circulatory assist support is the deepest in the industry. Our ultimate goal is for the Second Heart Assist device to support patients over 36 months as we totally regenerate their heart with our flagship BioLeonhardt technology comprising a stem cell homing and differentiation control + protein expression bioelectric stimulator with a re-fillable micro infusion pump and mixed fifteen component stem cell based composition.” states Howard J. Leonhardt, Lead Inventor, Executive Chairman & CEO
About Second Heart Assist, Inc.: Founded in Salt Lake City, Utah in late 2015 by the same team that developed the leading endovascular stent graft systems and the first percutaneous heart valve. Focused on the development of circulatory assist pumps within aortic stents. The company has research locations in both California and Utah with experienced consulting advisors from around the world. The Second Heart Assist, Inc. device product line was originally developed as a support device for the BioLeonhardt www.bioleonhardt.com heart regeneration implant comprised of a bioelectric stimulator and re-fillable micro infusion pump the size of a quarter designed to regenerate failing hearts over a 36 month course of treatment. See www.secondheartinc.com
About Leonhardt Ventures: Founded in 1982 (HJ Leonhardt & Co.) and formed into an LLC in 2005 (Leonhardt Vineyards LLC DBA Leonhardt Ventures) as the commercialization arm of inventor Howard J. Leonhardt. Leonhardt has 21 issued U.S. patents for organ regeneration and recovery devices and dozens more patent claims pending currently at the USPTO – https://patents.justia.com/inventor/howard-j-leonhardt. In the 1980’s the Leonhardt team patented and pioneered the developed of predictably compliant cardiovascular balloon catheters – PolyCath TM and turn key cardiac cath labs. In the 1990’s they developed the first commercially successfull stent graft for aortic aneurysm repair without surgery TALENT TM and the first percutaneous heart valve. Their research team members completed the first stem cell repair of animal heart in 1988 and the landmark first ever non-surgical stem cell repair of a human heart in 2001. They published their first bioelectric organ regeneration paper in 1999 in CIRCULATION. Since 1999 the focus of the organization has been on bioelectric, stem cell and growth factor based organ regeneration product development and research supported by micro pump and endovascular catheter technologies. See www.lventuresnestg.wpenginepowered.com
About Leonhardt’s Launchpads: Leonhardt’s Launchpads is the innovation and startup accelerator arm of Leonhardt Ventures. They opened up in 2008 at the University of Northern California Science & Technology Innovation Center near Santa Rosa, CA in 2013 in Santa Monica and in 2015 in Salt Lake City, Utah. They currently incubate 27 regenerative medtech and 3 regenerative economy startups. The business model is to advance each organ specific innovation and startup through first-in-man results and then seek a strategic partner.
About BioLeonhardt: BioLeonhardt formed in 2013 is focused on total heart regeneration with the combination of bioelectric stimulation, a re-fillable micro infusion pump and a fiftteen component mixed stem cell + growth factor based composition. See www.bioleonhardt.com