Heart valve co Pi-Cardia teams with China's Venus Medtech

Clal Biotechnology Industries Ltd. (TASE: CBI) Israeli portfolio company Pi-Cardia Ltd. has announced a collaboration with trans-catheter heart valve medical device company Venus Medtech (Hangzhou) Inc. to bring its Leaflex catheter-based solutions for treating heart valve calcification to China. Clal Biotechnology has an 8% stake in Rehovot-based Pi-Cardia, which raised $27 million in April led by Sofinnova Partners.

Pi-Cardia's Leaflex catheter performs mechanical scoring of valve calcification, restoring leaflets' mobility and improving valve hemodynamics. The Leaflex catheter is designed to be a cost-effective, durable standalone treatment. It can be used for patients who are not planning to undergo transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) and it can be a means to defer TAVR in patients who may be too young for the procedure. It can also be a preparatory step for improving the outcome of TAVR in heavily-calcified and bicuspid aortic valves.

Pi-Cardia CEO Erez Golan said, "With promising early clinical results, we are now ready to move to the next stage and establish the long term safety and efficacy of Leaflex™ as a standalone treatment for patients with aortic stenosis. We have an ambitious plan ahead of us, and we are dedicated to making Pi-Cardia's technology the next revolution in the treatment of structural heart disease."

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 14, 2020

Heart valve co Pi-Cardia teams with China's Venus Medtech

The collaboration will bring the Israeli company's Leaflex catheter-based solutions for treating heart valve calcification to the huge Chinese market.