Guidant Invests $10 Million in Cardiac Device Developer

A US$10 million investment has been announced by Guidant Corp. (Indianapolis, IN, USA) in Cardica, Inc. (Menlo Park, CA, USA), a company developing anastomotic devices for coronary bypass surgery.

Anastomosis, the connecting of vein grafts to the aorta and coronary arteries, is a challenging aspect of both traditional bypass surgery and beating heart surgery. Cardica is developing a system to provide surgeons with an easy-to-use, automated method for joining vessels without sewing, dramatically reducing surgery time, allowing for reproducible results, and reducing the likelihood of adverse events.

"We are enthusiastic about the benefits of beating heart surgery to patients, and we anticipate that automated technologies like Cardica's will help speed adoption of this growing procedure and further drive minimally invasive approaches to cardiac surgery,” said Nicky Spaulding, president, cardiac surgery, Guidant.




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