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About Apaxis Medical
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Limitations of current Heart Failure
therapies:
According to the American Heart Association, heart failure affects
over five million Americans with over 550,000 of them classified as
class IV based on the New York Heart Association (NYHA)
classification. Published data suggests that these gravely ill class
IV patients would benefit from Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD)
implantation however fewer than 4000 LVADs were implanted in the
United States in 2008. This is despite the fact that annual
mortality in this population may be as high as 50%.
The low utilization of LVAD technology in 2008 is due in part to the
perception that it is a procedure of last resort. This perception
has been fueled by poor outcomes in some of the sickest heart
failure patients. Currently, many patients in late stage heart
failure being referred for LVAD implantation have some element of
end-organ dysfunction such as liver, kidney, brain and lung disease.
It is well known that cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), which is
generally required for LVAD implantation, can exacerbate end organ
dysfunction, resulting in morbidity and even mortality.
A set of tools and techniques that facilitates LVAD implantation
without CPB, making the implantation safe, reproducible, and widely
applicable may improve results and broaden the application of LVAD
technology by changing this perception.
Postoperative hemorrhage has been cited in numerous published
reports to be the most frequently seen complication after LVAD
implantation. Massive transfusion can exacerbate end organ
dysfunction resulting in morbidity and mortality as well. CPB
requires systemic heparinization and irreversibly interferes with
platelet function. In a small series of LVAD implantations performed
without CPB at the Texas Heart Institute, transfusion requirements,
length of stay, and morbidity decreased dramatically.
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Company and Technology
Background
Apaxis Medical, Inc. (Apaxis) is a Houston-based
medical device company developing a set of tools and techniques to
make LVAD implantation easily reproducible and less risky by
eliminating the need for CPB, leading to an increase in LVAD
utilization.
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Apaxis is developing innovative
tools that make LVAD implantation less stressful for the patient
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Avoiding operative stress will
improve post-operative results after LVAD implantation
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By improving post-operative
results, Apaxis will accelerate LVAD adoption and application and
grow a $2B LVAD industry
Founders
O. Howard Frazier, MD and
William Cohn, MD, Cardiovascular Surgeons at the Texas Heart
Institute in Houston, Texas and nationally recognized
leaders in the research, development and implantation of
LVADs.
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O. Howard Frazier, MD
Inventor/Founder. World renowned surgeon in the field of
heart failure; largest US experience with heart assist
pumps; serial inventor; Director of Texas Heart Institute
Heart Transplant Program; performed over 1000 heart
transplants
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William Cohn, MD
Over 50 US patents for medical devices; faculty at Harvard
Medical School for 11yrs; Cohn Cardiac Stabilizer licensed
by Genzyme Surgical used in over 200,000 Off-pump Coronary
Artery Bypasses; founder of multiple venture capital-backed
medical device companies. |
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Funding
Apaxis was recently
approved to receive a pre-seed award by the Texas Emerging
Technology Fund TETF.
Texas`s Emerging Technology Fund Makes $250,000 Investment
in Apaxis
Apaxis has received initial seed funding from AlphaDev LLC
and is currently seeking additional equity investments.
Collaboration
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