SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--EBR Systems has announced the appointment of Allan Will as President and Chief Executive Officer. Will retains his prior position as Chairman of the Company's Board of Directors. Mr. Will succeeds company co-founder and CEO Rick Riley, who will remain with the company as Chief Operating Officer and continue as a Director of the company.
Allan Will is an operating executive with extensive experience founding, funding, operating, and selling medical device companies. Will has served as CEO and/or Chairman of numerous medical device companies including DVI (acquired by Eli Lilly), AneuRx (acquired by Medtronic), Adjacent Surgical (acquired by GSII), Evalve (acquired by Abbott Laboratories), Ardian (acquired by Medtronic in one of the largest acquisitions of a venture-backed medical device company), and Concentric Medical (acquired by Stryker) among others. Mr. Will was also founder, Chairman and CEO of The Foundry, a leading medical device incubator where he was co-founder of 11 medical device companies, and a founding managing director of Split Rock Partners, a prominent venture capital firm.
“I am very excited to assume this increased role at EBR. The Company’s wireless pacing technology promises to be the next major advance in cardiac rhythm management. Our first generation product should improve responder rates and decrease procedural difficulties associated with cardiac resynchronization therapy for heart failure. Ultimately, our wireless capability can replace all pacing leads, increasing efficacy and decreasing complications in bradycardia therapy as well as heart failure,” said Will.
EBR is currently engaged in the WiSE-CRT Study, a 100 patient feasibility, safety, and CE-Mark trial in Europe demonstrating biventricular capture in heart failure patients. Sixteen patients have been enrolled in the study at this time with promising results. Patients successfully treated to date include those with acutely failed coronary sinus (CS) lead placement, chronically failed CS leads, patients “upgraded” from dual-chamber defibrillators and patients who have not yet responded to traditional cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT).
“EBR has demonstrated an outstanding technical achievement in this early phase of our clinical trial. The next phase of the Company requires that we move the technology prominently into the market. The addition of Allan’s full-time leadership at this point is an exceptional opportunity for us to achieve this next important step and a testament to the Company’s ultimate potential,” added Riley.
About EBR Systems: EBR’s wireless pacing technology (WiCS) was developed to eliminate cardiac pacing leads, historically an impediment to efficacy and major source of complications and reliability issues. The initial product application addresses an important underserved need in the heart failure population. EBR’s WiCS technology provides an elegant solution for many heart failure patients indicated for CRT therapy including patients implanted with an existing pacemaker or defibrillator who would benefit from upgrading their therapy, patients denied therapy with failed attempts to implant a CS lead, patients with chronically failed CS leads and the 30% of patients annually classified as non- or marginal responders.