Cordis Corporation Acquires Ensure Medical

In a move to expand its portfolio of vascular wound-closure devices, Cordis Corporation (Miami Lakes, FL, USA) has acquired Ensure Medical (Sunnyvale, CA, USA), a privately held company that develops devices for post-catheterization closure of the femoral artery. Financial details were not disclosed.

The lead investigational technology of Ensure Medical is a femoral artery closure device (ACD) that uses a synthetic bioabsorbable polymer to stop bleeding and close the site of the arterial puncture. ACDs are designed to enable rapid closure time and reduce bed-stay when compared to conventional manual compression methods for wound-access site closure. Nearly eight million patients undergo cardiac catheterization procedures annually in the United States alone.

"Bioabsorbable wound closure has had a significant impact on patients during post-catheterization recovery. We have seen evidence to indicate that patients may experience less pain and can return to self-sufficiency much sooner,” said Peter Fitzgerald, M.D. Ph.D., professor of medicine, Stanford University Hospital (CA, USA), and one of the founders of Ensure Medical. "Ensure is excited about working with Cordis to accelerate this new ACD into the market and make a difference for healthcare providers and the patients they treat.”

"The addition of Ensure Medical enriches Cordis' ever-expanding portfolio of cardiac and vascular devices to offer healthcare professionals a broader range of innovative technologies to effectively treat the continuum of cardiovascular disease,” said Rick Anderson, company group chairman, Johnson & Johnson, and worldwide chairman of the Cordis franchise. Cordis is a division of Johnson & Johnson.

Cordis expects the investigational bioabsorbable ACD to enter into clinical trials in early 2007 in order to secure approval for marketing from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and regulatory authorities elsewhere around the world.



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