Jun 1, 2004
Guidant to Distribute New Technology to Make Heart Bypass Surgery Easier to Perform
Guidant Customers in Europe to Obtain Access to Pioneering Technology
Indianapolis, Ind. and Santa Clara, Calif. - Guidant Corporation (NYSE: GDT) today announced that the company has begun distribution of Cardica Inc.''s C-Port(tm) Distal Anastomosis System in Europe. Cardica''s C-Port System, which recently received approval, is designed to enable physicians to quickly and easily join blood vessels during heart bypass surgery. The C-Port System joins the vein graft to the coronary artery without sewing, allowing for rapid and reproducible results in one of the most challenging steps in the bypass surgery procedure.
"We believe that Cardica''s C-Port System could prove to be especially useful during beating heart surgery, a technique that offers significant benefits to patients," said Maria Degois-Sainz, president, Cardiac Surgery, Guidant Corporation. "We expect that innovative and easy-to-use technologies like Cardica''s will help speed adoption of automated devices and further drive minimally invasive approaches to cardiac surgery and better patient outcomes."
A growing body of research shows that beating heart surgery is more cost-effective than traditional, arrested-heart surgery, with equal or better patient outcomes. More than 650,000 bypass surgeries are performed annually worldwide and beating heart surgery accounts for 30 percent of these. The number of beating heart cases continues to rise each year.
Stefanos Demertzis, M.D., of Cardiocentro Ticino in Lugano, Switzerland, one of the investigators in the European C-Port clinical trial, said of his experience with the C-Port System: "In my cardiac surgery practice, I found the C-Port device to be an effective new tool to assist me in completing the joining of bypass grafts to even very small coronary arteries virtually with the push of a button. This promising new product is an important step towards truly less invasive coronary bypass procedures for our patients."
Guidant recently signed an agreement with Cardica giving the company full European, Middle Eastern and Canadian distribution rights for Cardica''s products, including the PAS-Port(tm) Proximal Anastomosis System for joining the vein graft to the aorta, which Guidant also recently began distributing in Europe. Guidant has made a $14 million equity investment in Cardica.
About Cardica, Inc.
Based in Redwood City, Calif. and founded in 1997, Cardica, Inc. is a privately held company developing medical devices to be used in the connection of blood vessels, a critical step in many surgical procedures. The company''s initial focus is on developing proprietary products to facilitate coronary bypass surgery.
About Guidant Corporation
Guidant Corporation is a world leader in the treatment of cardiac and vascular disease. The company pioneers lifesaving technology, giving an opportunity for better life today to millions of cardiac and vascular patients worldwide. Driven by a strong entrepreneurial culture of 12,000 employees, Guidant develops, manufactures and markets a broad array of products and services that enable less invasive care for some of life''s most threatening medical conditions. For more information visit www.guidant.com.