Healthcare Industry News: Johnson and Johnson
News Release - December 11, 2007
Heartscape Technologies Appoints Former Medtronic Executive to Role as Chairman and Independent Director
Company Also Announces Addition of Seasoned Sales and Marketing Executives to Management TeamCOLUMBIA, Md.--(HSMN NewsFeed)--Heartscape Technologies today announced the election of Barry W. Wilson by the Heartscape Board to serve as Independent Director and Chairman of the Board. Wilson joins Heartscape following his recent retirement as Senior Vice President of Medtronic, Inc. and President, Medtronic International. He was also a member of the Medtronic Executive Committee reporting to the CEO and was President of Medtronic Greater China. Wilson held several prior executive positions in the pharmaceutical industry, including President of Bristol-Myers Squibb Intercontinental, and President, International, of the Lederle Laboratories Division of American Cyanamid Company. He has also served as a member of the Board of Directors of Bausch and Lomb and of Mallinkrodt, Inc. until their acquisition and merger, respectively, and was recently appointed to the Board of Directors of Welch-Allyn. Since his retirement from Medtronic, Wilson has accepted several distinguished Board and advisory roles in addition to his role at Heartscape. “We are truly fortunate to have Barry on the Heartscape team. All of us look forward to working with him to learn from his experience and to benefit from his broad network of business and personal relationships,” said Arthur Hiller, Chief Executive Officer of Heartscape.
In addition to this important extension at the Board level, Heartscape is also pleased to announce two new appointments to expand the depth and breadth of the Heartscape Executive Management Team. Paul E. Curley has joined the company as Vice President of Marketing. Curley spent nearly 25 years at Merck and Co. in a wide range of sales, market research, marketing, and customer management roles. Over the last 10 years, Curley focused a large portion of his efforts at Merck in the area of cardiovascular disease, including roles as Executive Director of the Merck Hypertension and Heart Failure franchise, and as Executive Director, reporting to the Division President, of the Anti-Platelet and Ophthalmic Business Group. Curley left Merck in 2003 to join Target Rx, a start-up market research and data consulting firm.
Adding parallel depth to the company’s sales management capabilities, Kimberly A. Hillis has been appointed Vice President, Sales. Ms. Hillis is a highly accomplished sales executive with seventeen years of management experience, most notably in building cardiovascular sales teams at start-ups Cor Therapeutics and more recently at Scios. As Vice President of Sales, she had responsibility for building the Scios sales organization, eventually helping to facilitate the sale of the company to Johnson and Johnson. Following the acquisition, she continued to advance her career as part of the Johnson and Johnson Scios Management Team, managing integration of the Centocor cardiovascular team and a significant reorganization of the sales staff at Scios, and ultimately stabilizing sales following significant challenges in the market.
Hiller stated that “the addition of Paul and Kim to the Management Team brings an exceptionally broad range of experience, depth and contemporary sales and marketing knowledge to the company, and will help expand the breadth and depth of skills and experience on the Management Team. These additions to Heartscape represent the achievement of a critical milestone in building the infrastructure for the business’s future success.”
About Heartscape Technologies:
Heartscape Technologies is engaged in the development and marketing of the PRIME ECG system, an FDA-approved medical device that accurately and rapidly diagnoses heart attacks and ischemia (restrictions in blood supply) in emergency cases. The PRIME ECG system consists of a rapidly-applied single use disposable plastic vest containing 80 data collection points which connect to a compact mobile computer workstation. A physician can view the heart’s electrical activity in either traditional ECG tracings or easily interpreted colour-coded 3D graphics. The vest does not interfere with X-ray or other imaging tests and is already used in several US hospitals. Its chief advantage over standard ECG systems is that its superior diagnostic capabilities may enable earlier intervention, a central factor in reducing patient death and morbidity. Heartscape is also developing extensions to its existing PRIME technology, including a version of the vest that is planned to be used with pharmacologic and exercise-induced stress testing. Heartscape has sales and operation offices in the United States and R&D and manufacturing facilities in Northern Ireland. PRIME ECG (a registered trademark of Heartscape Technologies) was developed by Heartscape based on technology licensed from the University of Ulster and developed in collaboration with the Royal Victoria Hospital in Northern Ireland.
Clinical trials in nearly 3,000 patients over 12 years have consistently demonstrated the potential of PRIME ECG to deliver better results than a 12-lead standard ECG for the diagnosis of AMI (acute myocardial infarction). In late 2006, Heartscape initiated OCCULT-MI, a clinical trial designed to measure door to sheath time (DTST), in minutes, for PRIME-only STEMI (ST-elevation MI) patients vs. STEMI patients diagnosed by the standard 12-lead ECG. Time will be assessed from patient presentation to the hospital’s emergency department to the time of sheath insertion in the cardiac catheterization laboratory. Secondary endpoints will evaluate the impact of PRIME ECG on various measures including cost of care, clinical diagnosis and outcomes, and the role of PRIME ECG in assessing risk in patients with cardiac ischemia. The trial expects to enroll 1400 patients. Twelve centers are participating in the study, and more than 1200 patients have been enrolled to date. Results are expected in the first half of 2008.
Funding for Heartscape Technologies has primarily been provided by the following venture capital firms: Scottish Equity Partners, Glasgow, Scotland; Investor Growth Capital, Stockholm, Sweden; Radius Ventures, New York; and, Delta Partners, Dublin, Ireland.
http://www.heartscape.com/
http://www.primeecg.com/
Source: Heartscape Technologies
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