Saranas Appoints Chief Medical Officer

Saranas, a medical device company with a new technology for real-time detection of internal bleeding during cardiac procedures, has appointed Dr. Philippe Généreux as its chief medical officer.
 
Généreux is co-director of the Structural Heart Disease Program at Morristown Medical Center in Morristown, N.J. Saranas’ lead product is its Early Bird Bleed Detection System, which is moving through final product testing. U.S. Food and Drug Administration submission is expected later this year.
 
“We are pleased to welcome Dr. Généreux to the Saranas team during this pivotal moment in the company’s history. Dr. Généreux will play an important leadership role in helping to bring the benefits of our Early Bird Detection System to patients who potentially may benefit from this new technology as soon as possible. His entrepreneurial spirit paired with his clinical research and medical training as an interventional cardiologist make him an invaluable asset as we work to bring the Early Bird to market,” Saranas President and CEO Zaffer Syed said.
 
The Early Bird device is a standard vascular access sheath embedded with sensors that can detect bleeding from a blood vessel accidentally injured during endovascular procedures such as transcatheter aortic valve replacement, large bore hemodynamic support device placement, or other complex cardiac interventions, where the femoral artery or vein are used to gain access to the heart. The technology was invented at the Texas Heart Institute.

During his career, Généreux has been an interventional cardiologist at the Columbia Medical Center in New York, N.Y., and at the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal, Canada. He also served as the director of the Angiographic Core Laboratory at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation in New York, N.Y. He received his medical degree from the Universite de Montréal, Quebéc, Canada.
 
“I am very excited and pleased to be part of the Saranas team and to support the development of a solution designed to protect and, in some cases, save the lives of patients undergoing endovascular procedures by allowing early detection and better management of bleeding complications occurring during or after those procedures. I have also been impressed with the team’s focus on innovation and look forward to shaping and executing Saranas’ strategy to advance the clinical utility of the Early Bird system,” said Généreux.
 
Each year more than 20 million people in the United States undergo vascular access procedures. About 5 percent, or 1 million of them, will experience severe procedural bleeding complications, resulting in significant additional healthcare expenditures and placing the patients at an increased risk of death. These “blind” bleeds are typically unnoticed until meaningful symptoms are present, by which time their management is much more challenging and can compromise patient outcomes. By being able to detect the onset of bleeding early, the Saranas Early Bird system allows physicians to appropriately address the bleed and to continue the procedure.
 
Saranas Scientific Advisory Board
Généreux will also play a leadership role with the Saranas Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) which now includes the following members:

• Amir Kaki, M.D.— Medical Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, Detroit Medical Center Heart Hospital
• Dimitrios Karmpaliotis, M.D., Ph.D.—Director of Chronic Total Occlusions, Complex and High Risk Angioplasty, Columbia University Medical Center
• James McCabe, M.D.—Medical Director, Cardiac Catheterization Labs, University of Washington
• Manesh Patel, M.D.—Chief of the Division of Cardiology, Duke University

“We are thrilled to have such talented and experienced scientific advisors providing critical expertise to our team,” said Généreux. “Our SAB, composed of renowned and clinically active experts in various complex percutaneous interventions, is aimed at guiding the company in its clinical education efforts to eventually advance access of the Early Bird to the clinic.”

Saranas is a privately held Houston, Texas-based medical device company focused on improving patient outcomes through early detection of internal bleeding complications. The company’s patented introducer sheath technology for vascular access procedures enables physicians to mitigate downstream consequences by addressing bleeding complications immediately, improving patient outcomes and lowering healthcare costs.