InnAVasc Hires New President

InnAVasc Inc. has a new leader.

The company has hired Joseph A. Knight, Ph.D., as president.

“We are pleased to announce Joe’s appointment as president,” said Jeffrey Lawson, CEOfficer of InnAVasc. “As we continue the development of the Bullet Proof vascular graft, we wanted someone with a breadth of knowledge in bringing forward medical technologies. We believe that Joe’s experience and track record will be invaluable to our successful development and commercialization of Bullet Proof.”

Knight joins InnAVasc with nearly 15 years of experience in medical device innovation. He has been part of the intellectual property development, business, and strategic planning for four different ventures – including iRhythm Technologies and as founder/CEO of Medici Medical Technologies. Most recently, Knight spent five years at Medtronic plc in various roles in marketing, business development, and strategy. In his last role with Medtronic, as the director of Strategic Marketing, he developed and executed the strategy that led to Medtronic’s $100M acquisition of CardioInsight. Knight also served eight years as an infantry soldier in the U.S. Army. He holds a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, an M.B.A. from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, an M.S./B.S. in biomedical engineering from the University of South Florida, and completed Stanford’s Biodesign Fellowship.

“There are numerous unmeet clinical needs related to hemodialysis vascular grafts,” said Knight. “Results to date of InnAVasc’s Bullet Proof technology show significant promise to alleviate many of these needs and provide a substantially better device than those currently available. I look forward to joining the InnAVasc team and leading the effort to bring improved vascular grafts to patients and physicians that can benefit from them.”

InnAVasc Medical Inc. is a medical device company founded by Duke University surgeons and scientists, which designs and develops products for vascular and hemodialysis access. The company’s first technology is an arteriovenous graft (AVG) modification that incorporates two multilayer cannulation chambers, with self-sealing technology, that are resistant to posterior and sidewall needle penetration and injury: the Bullet Proof Vascular Access Graft. This production method modifies existing synthetic vascular grafts for immediate hemodialysis access, prevents needle cannulation injuries, and facilitates graft access and safety.