Anthem Equity Group

The NO Pulse Artificial Heart of the Future

karen — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:29:24 +0000

Building a heart that mimics nature’s lub-dub may be as comically shortsighted as Leonardo da Vinci designing a flying machine with flapping wings.

The foresight of a NASA Engineer David Saucier and Dr. Michael DeBakey has led to the NO Pulse Heart. Two tiny pumps, mimicking the left and right ventricles supply continuous blood supply to the body. The modern Champions of this miraculous Artificial Heart are Surgeons Billy Cohn and Bud Frazier of the Texas Heart Institute of Houston Texas and MicroMed’s Bryan Lynch.

Together these men have implanted the MicroMed HA5 in tandem as an artificial heart in over 30 cows. The protocol calls for 90 days of support and the MicroMed HA5 artificial heart and patients have performed splendidly.

1995 and 11 years after Saucier started NASA’s informal work on the implantable continuous-flow blood pump some of the NASA and Baylor researchers helped create a company called MicroMed to bring the pump to market and three years later surgeons implanted a DeBakey pump in a patient in Europe. MicroMed had not yet been approved by the FDA.

Eager to stay ahead and in 2005, MicroMed made the “bubble” mistake of allowing the company to be acquired by a European Hedge Fund; Absolute Capital. The “bursting bubble” of 2007 caused Absolute to starve MicroMed of capital just as the FDA trial was starting up in the USA. Absolute capital imploded and its principles faced fraud charges, MicroMed suffered and Thoratec Heart Mate 2 zoomed past MicroMed and the HA5. The Thoratec HeartMate 2 LVAD, 3 times larger than the MicroMed HA5, is now approved by the FDA and has also been part of the Texas Heart Institute Study of the No Pulse Artificial Heart.

Lynch and a few others have brought MicroMed back from the damage caused by Absolute Capital. The unique design of the MicroMed HA5 make it the ideal candidate for the future NO Pulse Artificial Heart. It is expected that the MicroMed HA5 LVAD will enter a FDA bridge to transplant trial in 2013 and the NO Pulse Artificial Heart will follow.

In preparation for a calf implant, Billy Cohn recently lifted from a saline filled tray the tiny MicroMed turbines with rubberized-dacron atrial cuffs dangling from them, it was clear that they were marked “Not Approved for Human Use.” Each tiny pump was 1/3 the size of the Thoratec HeartMate 2…………an advantage MicroMed hopes to soon exploit.

Ask Billy Cohn when will the No Flow Artificial Heart be ready for testing? His answer is “It really needs to be one integrated unit. That will take another three or four years to develop” he estimated and “then another six or seven years for the trials necessary for FDA approval.”

Ask Bryan Lynch of MicroMed about the integrated unit and you may hear a different answer.

Read all about it in the March 2012 issue of Popular Science.

Tucson Home Sales Increase For 3rd Consecutive Year

karen — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 23:23:30 +0000

Home Sales In Tucson Up 14%

Sales of existing homes in the Tucson market rose nearly 14 percent in 2011, with 13,418 sold, according to the latest figures from the Tucson Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service.

But sales remain far below their peak of over 18,000 sold in 2005, and the average sales price declined by nearly $26,000, or about 14 percent, to $163,527 in 2011.

Median sale prices, which reduce the effect of the highest and lowest sale prices, were not available on an annual basis. The median home price for December was $120,000, down from $139,500 in December 2010, the MLS reported.

The increase of about 1,600 home sales was the third straight year of higher sales and was the biggest jump yet since home sales fell precipitously from 2006 through 2008, MLS President Sue Cartun said.

In other findings, the MLS report said:

• Homes sold for cash increased to 35 percent, up from 28 percent in 2010. About 30 percent of 2011 sales involved conventional loans, and 24 percent were FHA loans.

Tucson home sales

Average sale price

2011: $163,527

2010: $189,352

2009: $201,155

2008: $242,066

2007: $272,273

Unit sales

2011: 13,418

2010: 11,802

2009: 11,661

2008: 10,578

2007: 12,939

Average days on market

2011: 82

2010: 88

2009: 78

2008: 78

2007: 67

The Artificial Heart, not just a pump – Scientific American December 2007

karen — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:34:05 +0000

The goal of building a safe artificial heart has frustrated bioengineers for more than four decades. At last, an end is in sight as SynCardia provides patients Freedom to live a normal life The Artificial Heart – SynCardia Freedom and Scientific American reports the past.

Acquisitions in store for Boston Scientific | Wall Street Beat

creativeslice — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:06:12 +0000

Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) plans to hoard most of the more than $1 billion in free cash flow it expects to generate this year so it can make acquisitions to boost its top line, CFO Jeff Capello told analysts last week.

During a conference call with analysts discussing the results, Capello said BSX expects to bring in upwards of $1 billion in free cash flow this year. The company will set aside about a quarter of that to buy back shares of its own stock, he said, and stockpile the remainder for acquisitions.

“I think you’re going to see us get a little bit more aggressive, from a business development perspective, to try to drive some new technologies into the business to drive the revenue growth,” Capello said. “I think as we continue to roll out the strategy and get more specific with some of the targets we’re looking at and given the environment that we’re in, we’re anticipating that it may become a slightly better environment from a business development perspective in terms of targets that are available that may not have been available historically.

“I think we will buy back and I think we’re comfortable saying we will use at least 1 quarter of our cash flow to do buybacks. And then thereafter, it will all be governed by what’s available and what we can get done at an appropriate price from a business development perspective,” he said.

Boston Scientific spent roughly $300 million buying back 52 million shares, or about 3% of outstanding common stock, during the 4th quarter, Capello said. That leaves about $700 million remaining for buybacks, he said.

“We continue to believe that our stock price is undervalued and currently expect to use approximately 1⁄4 of our free cash flow to repurchase shares in 2012,” Capello said.

Bioscience jobs have a bright future in Arizona

karen — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:53:29 +0000

Oro Valley bioscience expanding: Ventana Medical Systems doubled its acreage in Innovation Park, Oro Valley

Bioscience Jobs In Arizona

Capturing the Chaos of Innovation – A Collection of Articles

creativeslice — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:33:45 +0000

Rodger Ford, CEO SynCardia Systems May 2005 to May 2011

February 1, 2012

It has been my experience that rapid innovation is aided by a system that transparently captures chaos and creates order so that time can be compressed and outcomes accelerated.

Businesses that support a culture of fast failure when documented by a transparent and non-imposing system can accelerate outcomes. Therefore the need to create a system first and innovate second is the essential requirement.

Most business innovate without a proper framework and therefor innovation does not stay on track, time between failure is endlessly long and at the time of failure it may be determined that the innovation of a product is hopelessly off track. Sort of like flying an airplane before the wings are bolted on.

The key is to install a non-imposing system first and then innovate with the help of the system. Whether the initiative has to do with prototyping a product or evolving or developing in design control, the key is to move fast and fail fast while the details are documented in nearly real time.

SynCardia has been celebrated for the innovation of the Artificial Heart and the modern Freedom Driver that allows patients to be discharged from the Hospital and return to normal life. The backbone of the SynCardia successes are the applications and sub applications within MasterControl.

Following are several MasterControl White Papers you may find interesting. Without the support of the MasterControl system SynCardia would not have been as fast to market and current initiatives would not be possible.

Automating Document Control processes

SynCardia – accelerate outcomes in innovation

Reducing Compliance Risk, accelerating outcomes

How to employ mobile technology in a regulated environment and improve bolster innovation.

Globalize Quality Management speed up outcomes

Elegant Manufacturing – A Life Science Case Study

Efficiency Keeps ARUP Laboratories Industry Leader

Automating Document Control processes

Thrombosis reports chase Thoratec Investors to the sidelines

creativeslice — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:13:51 +0000

Canaccord Genuity believes that THOR growth will slow in 2012-2015E on reports of increased pump Thrombosis and HeartWare’s pending approval of the HVAD.

Thrombosis reports chase Thoratec Investors to the sidelines

Anthem Equity to build a high-tech bioscience Innovation Campus in Oro Valley

creativeslice — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:43:15 +0000

Anthem Equity Group sponsors the Innovation Campus for bioscience research and development companies, emerging technology businesses, medical-device manufacturers and suppliers to those industries. Innovation Campus sits next to Innovation Park in Oro Valley, Arizona where Sanofi-Aventis and Ventana Medical Systems already have facilities.

Oro Valley to get Bioscience Tech Campus

The Awards mount for SynCardia and patients go home

creativeslice — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:29:48 +0000

SynCardia has been nominated for one of the most prestigious awards in the European Medical Device industry.

SynCardia has been shortlisted for its wearable and portable Total Artificial Heart Driver…..that allows patients the “Freedom” to go home and live a more normal life.

The Awards continue as SynCardia is selected as a Finalist for the 2012 MEDTEC Europe Innovation Awards

The E-Myth

creativeslice — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:17:47 +0000

Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It.

Michael Gerber shows how commonplace assumptions can get in the way of running a business. He walks you through the steps in the life of a business from entrepreneurial infancy, through adolescent growing pains, to the mature entrepreneurial perspective, the guiding light of all businesses that succeed. He then shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any business whether or not it is a franchise. Finally, Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in. your business. After you have read The E-Myth Revisited, you will truly be able to grow your business in a predictable and productive way.