Former Acorn Executive Has New Venture and New Product

A new medical device venture is on the horizon for Steve Anderson, former president of Acorn Cardiovascular Inc., which formally shut down late last year.

New Brighton, Minn.-based Acorn struggled for years to gain U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for its mesh heart support device. This time around, Anderson and the new company, Preceptis, are touting a lower-risk device that will allow ear, nose and throat specialists to perform ear tube surgeries on children in doctors’ offices rather than in the operating room.

Anderson said that children who are age 12 and older generally have the procedure done in the physician’s office, but estimated that approximately 1.4 million ear tube surgeries are performed in the operating room each year.

“What we are doing is that we are trying to come up with solutions for moving those procedures out of the [operating room] so that the kids do not have to undergo general anesthesia,” Anderson said. “We have come up with a way of safely delivering ear tubes right in the [doctor’s] office.”

An added bonus is the potential for cost savings; health insurers can save 70 percent per procedure in the physician’s office versus the hospital, according to Anderson. Another option Preceptis is considering is moving the surgeries from the operating room to the sedation units of hospitals.

Anderson is pursuing a dual capital model as he scouts venture capitalists. He is aiming to raise between $5 million and $10 million depending on market appetite and traction. Anderson declined to specify how much has been raised to date.

“Both models will complete all pre-commercial tasks,” Anderson said. “The higher model will initiate a limited commercial release.”

Anderson says he hasn’t encountered any hesitance from venture capitalists because of the failure at Acorn Cardiovascular.

“In fact, every large venture capital firm was having the same type of issues with the FDA with their Class III portfolio companies [as Acorn Cardiovascular],” Anderson said. “[Preceptis] has had a lot of interest from different investment entities.”