AACHEN, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Protembis GmbH, a privately-held emerging cardiovascular medical device company, announced today the appointment of highly experienced and successful serial entrepreneur and medical device executive Azin Parhizgar (Ph.D.) as an Independent Member and Chairwoman of the Board of Directors.
Azin remains committed to the embolic protection field after her recent successes with Claret Medical. During her five years as President and CEO of Claret, she nurtured the company from its infancy to successful revenue generation with commercial sales in the U.S., Europe and other markets leading to a successful $270 million exit of the company to Boston Scientific Corporation.
Azin is currently also the Chairwoman of CVPath Institute, a Senior Venture Partner at 415 Capital, and a Board member at InnovHeart, CroíValve, Soundbite Medical Solutions, Moray Medical, among others. Prior to Claret Medical, Azin served as the COO of Conor Medsystems, which led to the acquisition of the company by Johnson & Johnson. Previously she held the position of Executive VP for Arterial Vascular Engineering (AVE), which was acquired by Medtronic. She spent two years at Medtronic post-merger expanding her roles and responsibilities leading to her position as Executive VP of Emerging Ventures and New Technologies. Azin received both her Ph.D. in Cell, Gene and Tissue Engineering and her M.Sc. in Biomechanical Engineering and Artificial Organ Design from Brown University.
“It is both exciting and an honor for us that Azin has chosen to lead our Board of Directors as new Chairwoman,” said Karl von Mangoldt and Conrad Rasmus, Co-CEOs of Protembis. “Azin continues to be committed to this space and brings incredible experience in the field of embolic protection and medical devices to Protembis. We are delighted to have Azin’s insights and strategic advice as we generate additional clinical data and advance the development of the ProtEmbo System.”
“I have watched Protembis’ successes and this space over the past years. I am convinced that there is a need for a simple and effective next generation complete cerebral protection system” notes Azin Parhizgar. “Protembis has developed an intuitive and differentiated technology, and I am very much looking forward to joining this great group of people to support the company’s continued success and value creation.”
Protembis plans to conduct an IDE study aimed at demonstrating safety and efficacy of the ProtEmbo® Cerebral Protection System (“ProtEmbo”) during transcatheter aortic valve replacement (“TAVR”). The ProtEmbo® System is an intra-aortic filter device that deflects embolic material away from the brain during TAVR. It is a low-profile system which is delivered through the left radial artery for optimal placement and stability. This is an ideal access site enabling physicians to avoid interference with TAVR equipment which is typically delivered through the femoral artery. The IDE study is designed as a multicenter randomized controlled trial in the USA and Europe.
About Protembis
Protembis is a privately-held emerging medical device company that has developed the ProtEmbo® Cerebral Protection System. The company strives to provide a simple and reliable solution to protect patients from brain injury during left-sided heart procedures, improving patient quality of life and reducing overall healthcare costs associated with brain injury during such procedures. The ProtEmbo® System is currently undergoing clinical investigations and has not yet been approved for commercial use by a regulatory authority.
