Medical Device Link.

Originally Published MX November/December 2004

BUSINESS DRIVERS

Allan May has joined Vascular Architects Inc. (San Jose) as CEO and chairman. May is a long-time investor and corporate leader in the medical device industry. He previously served as chairman of the investment screening committee at Tenex Medical Investors (Burlingame, CA) and was named 2001 biotech angel of the year by the International Association of Angel Investors. May has founded and served as chairman or CEO of many companies, including BeHere, Intella Interventional Systems, Mast Immunosystems, Imetrx, Immunetech, and Quanam Medical. Many of those companies were acquired during his leadership.

HeartStat Technology Inc. (Los Angeles) has elected Arthur A. Alfaro as a member of the company's board of directors. Alfaro has been president, CEO, and cofounder of Orthocon, a privately held orthobiologics company, since early 2004. He previously served as president, COO, and director of Osteotech Inc., a publicly traded orthobiologics device company; as president of Sofamor Danek Thoracolumbar, a spinal medical device division of Medtronic Corp.; and as vice president and general manager at Carbomedics Inc., a heart valve division of Sulzer Cardiovascular AG. Alfaro also served as vice president and general manager at Boston Scientific Corp. and held various positions in sales, marketing, and international divisions of Ethicon, a Johnson & Johnson company. HeartStat is a start-up company dedicated to commercializing the first practical system for monitoring blood flow perfusion and heart dynamics.

Shellock

Weiner

Frank G. Shellock, PhD, a world-renowned expert on the safety of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for medical applications, has been named to the scientific advisory board of Biophan Technologies Inc. (Rochester, NY). The announcement was made by Biophan CEO Michael Weiner. Shellock will provide medical, scientific, and market guidance to the company, which is developing proprietary technologies to make such medical devices as pacemakers and other implants safe and compatible with the MRI environment. "As one of the top people in the MRI-safety field, Dr. Shellock has long been one of the most important sources of scientific information for the industry," said Weiner. "It's a very significant honor for us that someone of Dr. Shellock's stature has agreed to serve with the other distinguished members of our advisory board." Shellock is a physiologist with over 20 years of research experience and more than 18 years of experience in magnetic resonance imaging. He has published widely on the subject and has authored several of the industry's leading medical textbooks. He is currently an adjunct clinical professor of radiology and medicine at the University of Southern California School of Medicine (Los Angeles) and president of Magnetic Resonance Testing Services (Los Angeles). He is also the founder of the Institute for Magnetic Resonance Safety, Education, and Research and is a fellow of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

The board of directors of Celsion Corp. (Columbia, MD) recently elected Dudleigh C. Stone to be an independent director, expanding the company's board from five to six members. Stone was also appointed chairman of the board's audit committee and a member of its compensation committee. During his 20-year career, Stone rose through the ranks at Pfizer Inc. to become vice president for strategic planning, international pharmaceuticals. In 2001, he founded Stone Advisers, a strategic and financial adviser specializing in business development, financial, and other investment advisory services to development-stage life science companies. Stone is a graduate of Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA), where he earned both his BS in economics and his MBA. Celsion is developing heat-based treatments for benign prostatic hyperplasia and breast cancer, and is exploring the use of drugs and gene-based biological modifiers that may be rendered more effective by using heat in their applications.

Vasomedical Inc. (Westbury, NY) has named Thomas Glover to succeed Photios T. (Fred) Paulson as president and CEO. Paulson will continue to serve as a director and adviser to the company. Glover was also appointed to the company's board of directors. Vasomedical is primarily engaged in designing, manufacturing, marketing, and supporting its proprietary technology for enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP), a noninvasive outpatient therapy for the treatment of diseases of the cardiovascular system. Glover was most recently acting president and CEO of Incappe Inc., a privately held medical device company that develops therapeutic devices to treat vascular insufficiency. He previously served as president and CEO of privately held Vasca Inc., as executive vice president of Johnson & Johnson Professional Inc., and as president and CEO of TherOx Inc. "Vasomedical has enormous potential for growth due to compelling clinical data, superior products and services, and very dedicated employees," said Glover. "I am very excited about the opportunity to lead the management team and employees to help enable medical professionals provide EECP therapy to help their patients." Glover received an MBA from Iona University (New Rochelle, NY).

De Feo

Gianfranco de Feo, PhD, has been named director of customer support and service for Guava Technologies Inc. (Hayward, CA), a privately held biotechnology and medical device company. Guava's product line combines instrument platforms, software modules, and assays for cellular analysis, using microliter sample volumes. De Feo was previously associate director for genomics collaborations at Affymetrix Inc. He received his PhD in neuronal and embryonic development from the University of California, Los Angeles.

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