TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CellAegis Devices, Inc., a medical devices company in the clinical testing stages prior to anticipated global market introductions of the Company’s proprietary, automated, noninvasive autoRIC™ Device for Remote Ischemic Conditioning (RIC), announced today the appointment of Sidney Levitsky, M.D., to the Company’s Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). Dr. Levitsky joins a renowned group of advisors who have participated in leading international clinical trial programs to innovate new treatments for angina, myocardial infarction (MI), reperfusion injury and other serious cardiovascular conditions. Dr. Levitsky’s addition brings the number of CellAegis SAB members to six.
Dr. Levitsky is Senior Vice Chairman, Department of Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, a major teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. He also is the David W. and David Cheever Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and Director, Cardiothoracic Surgery for the CARE GROUP in Boston. He previously served as President of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (2005-2006) and has held faculty positions at Yale University School of Medicine, the National Heart Institute, the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Cook County Graduate School and Harvard Medical School. He has authored over 450 journal articles and publications with a focus on intraoperative myocardial protection and ischemia/reperfusion injury of the heart. Dr. Levitsky received his M.D. degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and is board certified in surgery and thoracic surgery.
“We are thrilled Dr. Levitsky has joined our SAB, bringing over 40 years of experience in cardiovascular clinical research and a strong understanding of the dynamics of healthcare delivery in the evolving regulatory environment,” commented Rocky Ganske, CEO of CellAegis Devises. “In particular, Dr. Levitsky has participated as a senior-level advisor to key initiatives concerning health outcomes and benefits to both payers and patients. We believe this background will be invaluable to CellAegis as we launch our clinical programs prior to the commercialization of our autoRIC Device for remote ischemic conditioning.”
Dr. Levitsky stated, “I am pleased to be in the company of great clinicians and innovators as those constituting the CellAegis SAB. Together, we can provide our combined expertise to support the further progress of the Company’s unique approach to protecting the heart and other organs in MI and surgery. As an innovation in cardiovascular care, remote ischemic conditioning has the potential to be the missing link in providing a safe, noninvasive approach to protecting the heart and other organs at the onset of the disease process. I believe this new area of treatment indeed holds great promise for advancing patient care while providing cost benefits to the overall healthcare system.”
CellAegis’ SAB includes:
- Christopher Caldarone, M.D., Co-Founder of CellAegis is Professor and Chair of the Division of Cardiac Surgery, University of Toronto, and Staff Cardiovascular Surgeon, The Hospital for Sick Children;
- Kim M. Fox, M.D., Head of the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College, and Past-President of European Society of Cardiology;
- Sidney Levitsky, M.D., David W. and David Cheever Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School; Director, Cardiothoracic Surgery, CareGroup; Senior Vice Chairman, Department of Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center;
- Andrew N. Redington, M.D., FACC, FAHA, Co-Founder of CellAegis and Head of Cardiology, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto;
- Andrew S. Wechsler, M.D., FACC, FAHA, Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery and former Stanley K Brockman Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Drexel University College of Medicine, and Editor Emeritus, The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery;
- Richard D. Weisel, M.D., former Director, Toronto General Research Institute, and former Chairman of the Division of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Toronto.
More About the CellAegis Scientific Advisory Board Members
Dr. Christopher Caldarone is a practicing cardiac surgeon at the Hospital for Sick Children and Toronto General Hospital, Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Toronto with cross appointment in the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, and a member in the Leducq Network. Dr. Caldarone was trained at John Hopkins University, Columbia Medical School and did his residency in the Harvard Medical School. He practiced in the US at the University of Iowa before being recruited to The Hospital for Sick Children in 2003. Dr. Caldarone has published over 90 publications in primarily peer reviewed journals for which he was the principal author or collaborator and 19 books or chapters in books and a number of conference abstracts and presentations. Dr Caldarone is a company co-founder of CellAegis.
Dr. Kim M. Fox is Professor of Clinical Cardiology and Head of the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College, London. He is also Consultant Cardiologist at the Royal Brompton Hospital and Executive Chairman of the Institute of Cardiovascular Medicine and Science, a formal collaboration between the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust and Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. He is Past-President of the European Society of Cardiology (2006-2008) and has served as Editor-in-Chief of the European Heart Journal (1994-2002) and Associate Editor of the British Heart Journal (1985-1994). An expert in the treatment of angina, Dr. Fox has published over 400 papers in leading scientific journals and has played a major role in many important international clinical trials (EUROPA, HPS, ASCOT, BEAUTIFUL) that have revolutionized the treatment of this condition. Dr. Fox received his M.D. degree from the University of Dundee School of Medicine in the UK and is certified in cardiology.
Dr. Andrew N. Redington has been the Head of the Division of Cardiology at Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto since 2001. A Co-Founder of CellAegis, Dr. Redington also is Professor of paediatrics at the University of Toronto and recently was named BMO Financial Group Chair in Cardiology at SickKids, in which position he has received multiple grants supporting his continuing research on remote ischemic pre-conditioning to protect the myocardium and other organs. Dr. Redington’s additional research interests include non-invasive techniques for assessing myocardial performance, and functional outcomes congenital heart disease. Previously, Dr. Redington was Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London, and following this, Professor of Cardiology, Cardiothoracic Unit, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust, London. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed papers, and has edited 8 textbooks. Dr. Redington received his M.D. degree from the University of London.
Dr. Andrew S. Wechsler is Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, formerly having served as the Stanley K Brockman Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, from 1998 to 2011. He is the Editor Emeritus of the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and has authored or co-authored over 330 peer-reviewed manuscripts, 59 book chapters, and 29 books and monographs. Prior to joining Drexel, he was Stuart McGuire Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, and previously, he was Professor of Surgery and Physiology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Dr. Wechsler has served as Visiting Professor at more than 50 institutions nationally and internationally and has held several NIH grants supporting a career-long interest in myocardial ischemia and reperfusion injury, ventricular performance and valve surgery. Dr. Wechsler received his M.D. degree at State University of New York Downstate, summa cum laude and is board certified in general surgery and thoracic surgery.
Dr. Richard D. Weisel is Senior Scientist and former Director, Toronto General Research Institute, Toronto General Hospital. Dr. Weisel also is Professor and former Chairman of the Division of Cardiac Surgery, the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, as well as a cardiovascular surgeon at the Toronto General Hospital. He is an active researcher in the fields of myocardial protection, stem cell transplantation and vascular biology. In a series of clinical trials, Dr. Weisel’s research group defined the optimal methods of myocardial protection with blood cardioplegia. In addition, his group developed the concept of cell transplantation to regenerate heart tissue following a myocardial infarction and restore ventricular function. They are now working on the next generation of cell therapy augmented with biomaterials and gene transfection. Dr. Weisel received his M.D. degree from Marquette Medical School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is board certified in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery in Canada and the US.
About CellAegis
CellAegis Devices, Inc., based in Toronto, Canada, is poised for EU market introduction in parallel with a broad international clinical testing program of the Company’s proprietary, automated, noninvasive autoRIC™ Device for Remote Ischemic Conditioning (RIC). Placed around the arm, CellAegis’ autoRIC Device allows for the first time, simple, consistent, reliable and cost-effective automation of RIC at the point of care, including acute care applications in the ambulance, emergency room and other hospital settings, or for chronic treatment in the home. The autoRIC Device is highly portable and time-efficient, delivering four cycles of simple-to-administer treatment in less than 40 minutes. The device is compatible with current standard-of-care treatments.
CellAegis has extensive intellectual property protections for its autoRIC Device. In late 2011, CellAegis received ISO 13485 certification which covers the design, development, manufacturing and distribution of medical devices. For more information on CellAegis and the autoRIC Device, please visit http://www.cellaegis.com/.
The autoRIC Device is not yet cleared for sale in the U.S.