TriVascular, the Santa Rosa biotech startup brought back to life after it was acquired and then abandoned by Boston Scientific, has received another $30 million from investors.
The cash infusion will allow TriVascular to expand its Santa Rosa operations as it moves into clinical trials to establish the safety and effectiveness of its system for repairing aortic aneurysms.
?We are excited to move into the clinical phase and bring much-needed technological advancement to patients suffering from aortic disease,? TriVascular president Michael Chobotov said.
TriVascular may hire as many as 80 people across the company over the next year, including high-paying jobs in clinical trial management, product development, marketing, sales and manufacturing, Chobotov said.
Those jobs will be on top of the 170 positions the company has filled since relaunching in early 2008.
?There?s a good chance we?ll have an impact on the local economy here, as well as in the global practice of medicine,? he said.
The company?s stent graft systems are designed to repair aneurysms, weak spots in arteries that can burst, causing internal bleeding and death. The devices act like a miniature pipeline inserted inside an artery, relieving pressure on the artery walls.
TriVascular focuses on repairing aneurysms in the aorta, the largest artery in the body and the one that carries oxygenated blood from the heart to various regions of the body. Ruptured aneurysms are a leading cause of death among people over 65.
Several companies manufacture stent grafts for aortic aneurysms, include Medtronic, the Minneapolis-based company whose vascular division is based in Santa Rosa.
TriVascular claims its devices are superior to others on the market. Instead of popping open at the repair site, hollow rings in TriVascular?s stent grafts are inflated with liquid polymer, ensuring a snug fit. This also gives the devices a lower profile, making it easier for the surgeon to thread them through arteries with a catheter, explained Chobotov, who co-founded the company in 1998.
TriVascular was in the midst of clinical trials in 2005 when Boston Scientific purchased it for $65 million. But 14 months later, as it struggled to digest larger acquisitions, Boston Scientific shuttered the division to reduce costs, putting 270 employees out of work.
Chobotov and co-founders Robert Whirley and Joseph Humphrey went to work immediately to rescue the company. They worked with a group of investors and last year succeeded in buying their baby back from Boston Scientific, creating a new business called TriVascular2.
Since then, 170 employees have gone back to work at the company?s 110,000-square-foot headquarters near Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport. The vast majority, about 140, are former TriVascular employees, Chobotov said.
?We?ve hired some of the best people in the business,? he said.
The company has hit a number of milestones, prompting the latest round of funding from the investor group. In addition to rebuilding the management team, the company has updated its abdominal aortic stent graft, and has also developed a second device designed to repair the thoracic aorta, the widest section of the aorta closest to the heart, he said.
Those and other accomplishments convinced the investment group that their initial investment was in good hands and the company was executing its strategy well, he said.
?We are fortunate to have such strong financing support, especially in this economic environment,? Chobotov said.
The investors are New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Delphi Ventures, MPM Capital and Kearny Venture Partners.
?There are significant clinical unmet needs in the treatment of aortic disease and we believe TriVascular?s technology will significantly broaden the applicable patient population for endovascular repair,? said Doug Roeder, general partner at Delphi Ventures.
The clinical trials will be conducted by the company at medical centers around the world. The company hopes to have a product on the market by 2012 or 2013.
?These are very long-term trials,? he said.
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