Serious Deal for a Product with a Funny Name French drugmaker Sanofi has agreed to buy a Woburn, Ma

Serious Deal for a Product with a Funny Name
French drugmaker Sanofi has agreed to buy a Woburn, Mass.-based medical device company to expand its presence in biosurgery.

Sanofi said it planned to commercialize LeGoo, manufactured by Pluromed Inc., a gel for temporarily controlling bleeding during surgical procedures. Details of the deal were not released.

Pluromed has developed a proprietary polymer technology, called Rapid Transition Polymers (RTP), that uses injectable plugs to improve the safety, efficacy and economics of medical interventions, according to the company. Sanofi will commercialize LeGoo, which is a U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved and CE marked gel for temporary endovascular occlusion of blood vessels during surgical procedures.

LeGoo is a thermo-sensitive biocompatible and non-toxic liquid gel that forms a plug when injected into a blood vessel to temporarily stop blood flow. The plug dissolves rapidly via cooling or spontaneously after several minutes. Once dissolved, the plug cannot reform because the concentration is too low. In a prospective, randomized study, LeGoo has been shown to provide better operating conditions than conventional occlusion techniques by limiting blood flow into a surgical field without causing damage to the vessels, according to the company. The study also showed a reduction in the time required to perform an anastomosis for beating heart surgery when using LeGoo. Time, of course, is critical to patient outcomes in these types of surgical interventions.

“The acquisition of Pluromed underscores Sanofi’s commitment to strengthen its Biosurgery portfolio,” said Alison Lawton, senior vice president and general manager of Sanofi’s Biosurgery business.
“LeGoo is a breakthrough technology with the potential to change the paradigm of vascular and cardiovascular surgical procedures, by providing fast, temporary control of blood flow while avoiding vessel trauma associated with standard of care.”

Jean-Marie Vogel, CEO of Pluromed said he was “confident” that Sanofi has the expertise and resources necessary to bring the product to market and “drive adoption.”

“LeGoo represents a major advancement in surgical technology because of its ability to control bleeding without clamps or snares that can injure delicate blood vessels,” said Dr. William E. Cohn, director, Minimally Invasive Surgical Technology at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston, Texas, and a member of Pluromed’s board of directors. “This breakthrough gives surgeons a way to temporarily stop blood flow into the surgical field which is imperative for clear visualization and accurate placement of sutures. I believe this technology will be widely adopted in cardiovascular surgery and perhaps in other fields in the future.”

Pluromed will become part of Sanofi’s Biosurgery unit, which develops and markets biologically based products for osteoarthritis relief, adhesion prevention, cartilage repair, and severe burn treatment.
Sanofi spent $20.1 billion last year to acquire Genzyme, which is based in Cambridge, Mass., and is the largest maker of medicines for rare genetic diseases. After the purchase, Genzyme’s biosurgery business was folded into Sanofi. The French drugmaker is ready to develop the businesses it acquired through Genzyme.