Cardica and Cook Expand Development Agreement

Cook Medical of Bloomington, IN, and Redwood City, CA-based Cardica, Inc. recently expanded their original agreement regarding the development of vascular closure devices. Cook Medical will pay Cardica up to $750,000 for the development of an additional product for the closure device product line.
    “We are excited to apply Cardica’s innovative product design and development to the next device in our vascular closure product line, as we believe that this technology has the potential to effectively address large and growing market needs” said Brian Bates, senior vice president of business development for Cook Medical. “We plan to launch the first product of the Cook Vascular Closure Device line in Europe in the next six months.”
    Similar to the original agreement under which Cardica developed the Cook Vascular Closure Device, under this amendment Cardica is responsible for product design and pre-clinical development and is entitled to receive royalties on any future worldwide sales by Cook. Cook is responsible for clinical development and regulatory approval, and has exclusive commercialization rights.
    An estimated 8.5 million diagnostic and interventional catheterization procedures were performed worldwide in 2006, all of which required access site closure either by manual compression or alternative vascular closure devices and techniques. In approximately 45 percent of these cases, a closure device was used, and that number is steadily increasing. The worldwide market for femoral artery closure devices alone is estimated to be over $750 million by 2008.