Event Information

Event Topic:
Photochemical Tissue Passivation for Coronary By-pass Surgery

Event Description:
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Cardiac and peripheral arterial disease patients are treated with autologous saphenous vein grafts to revascularize tissue when significant occlusion has developed. Roughly 350,000 patients in the U.S. undergo coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery every year to address this life-threatening disease. These patients are predominately over 65 years of age and over 75% of patients have cardiac arteries by-passed with saphenous vein grafts that are removed from the patient’s leg. While the use of saphenous vein grafts (SVGs) remains the gold standard in coronary artery bypass graft surgery, these grafts have poor long-term patency rates compared to arterial grafts. In fact, vein grafts are associated with a failure rate of 25-50% at 5 years. The poor long-term outcomes are due to the luminal narrowing resulting from intimal hyperplasia, medial thickening, and subsequent superimposed accelerated atherosclerosis. One of the principal contributing factors in this intimal hyperplastic response is the excessive dilation of the vein graft as it is exposed to arterial pressures. This acute dilation (“ballooning”) of the vessel results in a cascade of vascular injury responses which ultimately lead to pronounced intimal hyperplasia and eventual graft failure. To date no therapy or intervention has been developed that markedly improves the long-term patency of vein grafts. As a result, it would be highly desirable if clinicians were equipped with a viable solution to reduce the degree of tissue expansion of venous grafts when they are exposed to arterial pressure and reduce the likelihood of graft failure following CABG. This remains an area of high unmet clinical need. DurVena has developed a novel photochemical tissue passivation therapy that addresses this unmet need by preserving a patient’s autologous vessel for transplant such that vein graft patency may be improved following a CABG procedure. Rose Bengal dye, a photo-initiator with a long history of medical use, is applied to the exterior of the harvested vein. The coated vein is exposed to green LED light, which activates the dye creating singlet oxygen species additional collagen crosslinks in the extra cellular matrix of the adventitia of the vein. The collagen crosslinks increase the tissue strength and decrease the elasticity. Extensive pre-clinical testing of PTP in both small and large animals has been published in top peer-reviewed journals showing a significant increase in vein stiffness (5x), a comparable reduction in vein expansion, and a reduction in intimal hyperplasia (70% reduction), a precursor of stenosis and graft failure. This novel therapy is licensed from Mass General Hospital and is being driven by an accomplished team of business professionals with several successful exits ($1.25B in total investor returns) and extensive experience with start-up medical device development in this market sector. Broad claims covering the PTP method and devices for vein graft preparation have been issued around the world, and a comprehensive international portfolio of related claims are being prosecuted.

Date/Time:
Date(s) - 01/24/23
8:15 am - 10:30 am

Event Location:
Zoom talk: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88573518331:

Speaker Information

Event Speaker:
John Ashley

Event Speaker Title:
CEO

Event Speaker Company:
DurVena

Event Speaker Bio:

John Ashley is a serial entrepreneur with over 30 years in the medical device industry. After completing his bachelor’s and master’s in mechanical engineering at M.I.T., he started his career developing diagnostic and electrophysiology heart catheters first at Abbott Labs and then for Medtronic. John was then recruited as the fifth employee of Oratec Interventions where he developed the Spine Catheter for thermal modulation of the intervertebral disc to treat low back pain. As Oratec grew to 150 employees and $50M/yr in revenue, John was promoted to Director of R&D and was responsible for 22 engineers, scientists, and technicians and managed the development and commercialization of over 30 arthroscopic and spine products. After a successful IPO, Oratec was acquired by Smith and Nephew for $260M. John has worked for more than 10 other medical device start-ups including Fox Hollow Technologies (VP of R&D/IPO/Acquired by EV3 $780M), Primaeva Medical (VP of R&D/Acquired by Syneron), CoAlign Interventions (EVP of Operations and R&D/Acquired by Styrker Spine), ReValve Med (CEO), ANPA Medical (CEO), and Sapphire Medial (Co-founder) where along with orthopedic surgeon Dr. Gary Fanton, he developed the Piton knotless adjustable suture anchor that was acquired by Tornier. In total these start-ups have returned over $1.25B to investors. John consulted for Smith and Nephew and Stryker Spine post acquisition as well as for Sutter Hill Ventures, Spinal Kinetics (Acquired by OrthoFix), Baxano (merged with Trans1), and Benvenue Medical. John is currently the CEO of DurVena, Inc., a Mass General spinout. He also continues to serve as a strategic advisor to ROM Technologies (where he helped develop a digital health/AI patent portfolio that was recently valued at ~$100M) and several start-ups through MIT’s Venture Mentoring program, the UCSF Surgical Innovations Group, and is a member of the industrial advisory board to the Biomedical Department at the University of the Pacific. John is a member of the board of directors of LifeAir, ROMTherapy, and HealthROM. He also serves as an expert witness in IP, liability, and contract cases. John enjoys not only the challenge of developing new technologies to address unmet clinical needs, but also structuring the entity, corporate processes, intellectual property strategy, and culture to create a highly effective and capital efficient enterprise.

Event Details

Cost:
$0

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