Cardica, a Redwood City, CA, company that makes anastomosis systems for coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, has raised $11.9 million in a private placement led by A.G. Edwards and co-led by Allen & Company. The financing will go toward further commercialization of Cardica’s two main products, the C-Port Distal Anastomosis System and the PAS-Port Proximal Anastomosis System, and development of additional vascular and surgery devices.
The current method of performing anastomoses in CABG procedures involves technically demanding and time-consuming hand-sewn sutures to connect a bypass graft vessel to the aorta and small-diameter coronary vessels. The idea behind systems like Cardica’s is that automating the process will improve the quality and consistency of the anastomoses, and decrease the time required to complete them. The C-Port system is currently marketed in the U.S. and Europe. PAS-Port is on the market in Europe and Japan, and is being evaluated in a pivotal trial in the U.S.
According to Cardica’s Web site, roughly 260,000 CABG procedures are performed in the U.S. each year. Those procedures require about 1.2 million anastomoses.