AngioScore Names Trotter CEO After Founder Heller Retires
By Lisa Lacy
August 20, 2005 / Alamedo, Calif. – AngioScore Inc., a device start-up focused on the development of angioplasty tools, said it named Thomas Trotter chief executive.
Trotter was most recently president and CEO of publicly traded orthopedics company Orthologic Inc. He replaces retiring CEO Ephraim Heller who was also founder and chairman of AngioScore.
Trotter joins the AngioScore board, but will not serve as chairman; an unnamed director will assume the role. In addition to Trotter, AngioScore board members include Lisa Suennen, managing director of Psilos Group; Gary Lazar, managing director of California Technology Ventures; Eitan Konstantino, president of AngioScore; Heidi Huntsman, partner of Utah Venture Partners; and Dalia Megiddo of Innomed Ventures.
Before Orthologic, Trotter served as president of the critical care division and U.S. markets at Tyco International Ltd. subsidiary Mallinckrodt Inc. He joined Mallinckrodt through its 1988 acquisition of Diamond Sensor Systems, a venture-backed medical device company in blood chemistry analysis where he was president and chief executive.
Trotter joins AngioScore as it seeks Food and Drug Administration approval for AngioSculpt, its line of balloon angioplasty catheters that are surrounded by nitinol struts for scoring arterial plaques. Trotter said he expects the platform's scoring element to prove more effective than traditional angioplasty or drug eluting stents in reaching into clogged arteries.
The catheters are available in Europe after the company received CE Mark approval for both coronary artery and peripheral applications last year.
AngioScore completed a coronary artery trial in the U.S. in March and has since submitted a pre-market approval application to the FDA. Trotter said the company is awaiting approval for a potential 2006 launch in coronary artery disease and a trial for the peripheral application is in discussion.
AngioScore is backed by $18 million to date, most recently taking in a $15 million Series B financing last August. Psilos Group co-led the investment with California Technology Ventures. Innomed Ventures, UV Partners and Linkagene also participated.
Trotter said insiders hold about half of the company and additional funding is possible as the company moves toward marketing and commercialization.
Founded in 2003, the Alameda, Calif.-based company has 30 employees and is hiring "in areas necessary to scale up manufacturing and regulatory activities." For more information, please visit the AngioScore web site.
8/10/2005
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