CardiaLen Awarded Phase I SBIR Grant

ST. LOUIS, MO, April 09, 2011 (Press-News.org) CardiaLen, Inc is pleased to announce that it was notified by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of a $216,027 Phase I SBIR award to develop an enhanced system for atrial defibrillation (AF). AF is the most frequent arrhythmia in clinical practice and a major contributor to morbidity and mortality. It is estimated that 3 to 5 million Americans are afflicted by atrial fibrillation and are at risk for thromboembolic stroke, congestive heart failure (CHF), and cognitive dysfunction. According to a recent report by the AF StatTM working group, AF costs Medicare more than $15.7 billion annually due to costly complications.

Qun Sha, M.D., MBA, the director of clinical affairs, will be the Principal Investigator for the grant. This funded research will involve design, fabrication, and testing of electrical stimulation equipment capable of generating novel waveforms to further reduce the energy required to achieve atrial defibrillation.

This grant follows the October, 2010 receipt of a Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project grant totaling $231,013. These funds were awarded to small firms that showed significant potential to produce new and cost-saving therapies, support U.S. jobs, and increase U.S. competitiveness.

CardiaLen holds rights to its low-energy cardioversion technology under an exclusive global joint license from Washington University in St. Louis and Case Western Reserve University to develop and commercialize certain intellectual property developed by Professor Igor Efimov, Ph.D. This technology has the potential to provide pain-free cardioversion-defibrillation therapy for both atrial and ventricular arrhythmias, conditions where major unmet needs exist.
CardiaLen will focus primarily on atrial fibrillation, a serious and growing condition worldwide, and secondarily on ventricular fibrillation. It will work in strategic alliances with industry partners, as appropriate. Pain-free cardioverter-defibrillators will offer significant patient benefits but will require extensive preclinical testing, clinical trials and regulatory approval prior to entering the market.

CardiaLen is jointly located in St. Louis, MO, where it maintains its headquarters and clinical affairs office, and Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN, where it conducts contract product development.