VisCardia Inc., a privately held medical device developer, has completed series B financing and simultaneously obtained assets and technology rights from Inovise Medical Inc., with a combined aggregate value of $12.5 million, to continue development of its proprietary implantable heart failure therapy device. Investments were led by Kinetic Capital Partners of Vancouver, British Columbia.

In addition, the company appointed Michael J. Mirro M.D., as director of medical affairs.
 
Heart failure affects more than 10 million patients in Europe and the United States, resulting in more than $50 billion health care costs per year. It is one of the leading causes of hospitalization for people older than 65, and results in impaired quality of life, anxiety, and depression. In the United Sates alone, more than 520,000 newly diagnosed cases of moderate to severe heart failure occur every year are not currently indicated for any therapeutic heart failure device options.
 
VisCardia’s proprietary implantable system chronically stimulates the thoracic cavity musculature to mechanically augment cardiac systole and diastolic filling. The therapy is targeted for the significant majority of heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction and normal ventricular electrical conduction.
 
“Our pre-clinical and human data demonstrates that our therapy chronically improves systolic and diastolic function without exhibiting adverse muscle fatigue,” said Peter Bauer, VisCardia’s president and CEO. “This evidence, along with the pressing need for new chronic heart failure therapies in patients with normal electrical function, helped drive our successful round in preparation for the next round of studies using our newly developed system.”

Mirro, the new director of medical affairs, is board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, cardiac electrophysiology, and geriatrics. He is a certified cardiac device specialist (IBHRE), and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American Heart Association, the American College of Chest Physicians, and the American College of Cardiology (ACC). He has conducted clinical research studies as a principal investigator for more than 100 trials and has published over 40 scientific articles and book chapters.

“As a pioneer in the field of cardiac electrophysiology, implantable device therapy, and clinical research, Dr. Mirro will be an integral part of VisCardia’s therapy development and commercialization process. He brings a deep clinical expertise with novel implantable device research practices,” said Bauer. “As a renowned opinion leader in medical technology and clinical standards of care for implantable devices, Dr. Mirro’s expertise will help us shape clinical practice for our therapy to be adopted as a standard of care.”
 
Mirro currently serves as senior vice president and chief academic research officer at Parkview Health, director of the Mirro Center for Research and Innovation at Parkview, and clinical professor of medicine at Indiana University. He is a trustee and chair of the Academic Affairs Committee at Indiana University.
 
“The clinical standard of care for heart failure has a well-known gap of device therapies for the significant majority of patients with reduced ejection fraction yet preserved ventricular synchrony,” said Mirro. “I’m excited to join this initiative since preliminary data has demonstrated VisCardia’s therapy targets the primary issue with chronic heart failure, namely reduced hemodynamic function while operating at a delicate tipping point of filling and energetics. I am excited to help support the team of device scientists who will bring to market a device to manage heart failure, and bring life-saving technology to patients who cannot benefit from cardiac resynchronization therapy.”
 
VisCardia is based in Portland, Ore.