Last week was certainly busy for Tryton Medical. It received the CE Mark for larger-diameter sizes of the Tryton side branch stent system for the treatment of coronary artery disease and announced the appointment of ex-AngioDynamics and Cordis exec Shawn McCarthy as president and CEO.
Tryton was founded in 2003 by Aaron Kaplan and Spray Venture Partners and has been dedicated to tackling a difficult problem--the buildup of plaque at the site of a bifurcation in coronary artery disease patients. As it notes on its website, Tryton believes the ability to definitively treat bifurcation lesions may someday allow stenting to become the new standard of care for left main coronary artery disease, providing an alternative to invasive bypass surgery.
To that end, the company has designed a system that includes a deliverable stent deployed in the side branch artery using a standard single-wire balloon-expandable stent delivery system. A conventional drug eluting stent is then placed in the main vessel. The stent system has CE Mark approval in Europe for its regular size stents and is commercially available in 21 countries throughout Europe and the Middle East. And the launch of the larger diameter size stents--3 to 3.5mm and 3.5 to 4.0mm--will allowed a broader range of patients to be treated, the company notes in its release.
While the system hasn't been cleared by the FDA for commercial use, the company announced earlier this year that the first U.S. patient has been enrolled in the pivotal trial to evaluate the system. McCarthy, who most recently led AngioDynamics' Vascular and Oncology Surgery business units and was once worldwide VP of marketing at Johnson & Johnson's Cordis unit, told FierceMedicalDevices that the enrollment in the U.S. has picked up momentum. The study is comparing the use of the Tryton stent in the side branch in conjunction with a standard drug eluting stent in the main vessel with the use of angioplasty in the side branch with a standard drug eluting stent in the main vessel for the treatment of complex bifurcation disease. The study will enroll 704 patients at up to 75 centers in North America and Europe.
McCarthy, who will officially come on board June 6*, succeeds former Tryton CEO J. Greg Davis, who left in February As MedCity News notes, Davis joined Tryton in 2008 after stints at Guidant and Eli Lilly. McCarthy told FMD he is excited to join an extremely accomplished team that is working to serve a market with a significant need. He added the company plans on continuing to drive deeper market penetration in Europe and complete enrollment in the U.S. clinical study.
Last September, Tryton closed a $20 million Series D round of financing. Previous investors PTV Sciences, RiverVest Venture Partners and Spray Venture Partners contributed to the round; the financing was lead by private healthcare investor Arnerich Massena.
- see the Tryton release on McCarthy
- check out the release on the CE Mark approval
- get more from MedCity News
ALSO: Tryton Medical has announced positive results in three "real world" European registries of the company's Tryton side branch stent system for the treatment of atherosclerotic lesions in the side branch at the site of a bifurcation. Tryton release
* Editor's Note: Story updated to note McCarthy starts June 6, not June 1 as original stated.