EDA-Supported Medical Device Companies Among Those Joining Global Fight Against Heart Disease
The American Heart Association (AHA) notes that heart disease is the leading cause of death in the world, killing more than 370,000 Americans a year. The AHA also states that heart disease strikes someone in the United States about once every 42 seconds. National Wear Red Day® highlights heart disease as the number one cause of death in women.
“While the statistics coming from the AHA are foreboding, it’s encouraging that medical devices created by New Jersey innovators are being used by doctors worldwide in their fight against the deadly epidemic of heart disease,” EDA Chief Executive Officer Melissa Orsen said.
CytoSorbents Corporation (@CytoSorbents), a Monmouth Junction, NASDAQ-traded (CTSO) medical device company focused on critical care immunotherapy, is commercializing a blood purification technology called CytoSorb® to reduce deadly inflammation common to open heart surgery (e.g. coronary artery bypass graft surgery, valve replacement, and heart-lung transplant) and many lethal conditions in the intensive care unit, such as complications from cardiac surgery, as well as sepsis and infection, trauma, and liver failure.
Highlighting the far-reaching effects New Jersey companies have on the global scene, CytoSorb®, which is reported to have been used safely in more than 20,000 human treatments to date, is currently approved in the European Union, and is being distributed in 42 countries around the world. CytoSorbents recently pre-announced 2016 CytoSorb sales of $8.2 million, doubling from $4.0 million in 2015. The company also recently announced the extension of a strategic partnership agreement with Fresenius Medical Care (FMC), the world's largest dialysis company, to extend FMC's exclusive distributorship of CytoSorb for critical care applications in France, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland through 2019, as well as a co-marketing agreement across all of the countries in which CytoSorb® is sold, where possible.
CytoSorbents has participated in the State’s Technology Business Tax Certificate Transfer (NOL) Program. Administered by the EDA and the New Jersey Department of Treasury's Division of Taxation, the NOL Program enables eligible technology and biotechnology companies to sell New Jersey tax losses and/or research and development tax credits to raise non-dilutive cash to finance their growth and operations. In addition, CytoSorbents received funding from the New Jersey Technology Council’s (NJTC) inaugural venture fund, NJTC Fund 1, in which the EDA invested $7.15 million as a limited partner.
With the tagline, “Diagnosing Better Care,” Totowa-based VectraCor (@VectraCor) has developed what it describes as the world’s first cardiac electrical biomarker (CEB®) that can help nurses and doctors detect, in real time, a potential heart attack. Traditional electrocardiograms (ECG) are used to monitor a patient’s heart and generate complex reports for a doctor’s analysis using 10 wires, or electrodes, to get 12 leads, or pictures of the heart. VectraCor’s proprietary product, VectraplexECG System with CEB®, provides 15 leads in the United States and 22 leads in Europe, giving nurses and doctors a more in-depth view of the patient’s heart utilizing only five electrodes. The technology also provides a report from which doctors and nurses can easily and quickly interpret whether a patient is having a heart attack, enabling them to get critical care that much faster.
VectraplexECG System with CEB®
VectraplexECG System with CEB® is currently being used by the Jersey City Medical Center, RWJBarnabas Health, Summit Medical Group, and numerous urgent care centers throughout New Jersey. It is one of numerous products for which VectraCor has either patents or patents-pending in 12 countries. VectraCor CEO Brad Schreck told @NJEDATech that Michigan’s Henry Ford Hospital is presenting positive results related to VectraplexECG System with CEB® response time in a prospective study in the cath lab to the American College of Cardiology in March.
VectraCor participated in the EDA’s New Jersey Founders and Funders event in October. Held semi-annually at the EDA’s Commercialization Center for Innovative Technologies, New Jersey Founders & Funders events introduce entrepreneurs to investors in 10-minute one-on-one “speed dating” match ups, paving the way for emerging companies to attain the funding they need to grow in the state. In addition, several of VectraCor’s current investors have benefited from the State’s Angel Investor Tax Credit Program. Administered by the EDA in consultation with the New Jersey Division of Taxation, the Angel Investor Tax Credit Program offers a 10 percent refundable tax credit against New Jersey corporation business or gross income tax for qualified investments in an emerging technology business with a physical presence in New Jersey and that conducts research, manufacturing, or technology commercialization in the state.
For more information about resources available to support New Jersey’s technology industry, visit https://www.njeda.gov/tls and follow @NJEDATech on Twitter and LinkedIn.
