Here's the Financial Post article...
'Wireless' heart device could boost Ottawa firm
By ALAN TOULIN
Ottawa Bureau Chief The Financial Post
An Ottawa consortium that has developed a medical device to help a damaged heart continue working is ready to move to the manufacturing phase of its multimillion-dollar development plan.
Rod Bryden, chairman of World Heart Corp., said yesterday the final manufacturing specifications for HeartSaver have been completed and manufacturing will begin in January. The device, generically known as a left ventricular assist device (VAD), is an implant developed by
scientists at the Ottawa Heart Institute. The institute is in a commercial partnership with Bryden and other investors in World Heart.
The HeartSaver is superior to other VAD devices because of its smallness and technical breakthroughs that allow it to be powered and monitored by a device through the skin, obviating the need to open a hole in the body for wires, Bryden said. Patients using the device, which is expected to cost $50,000, can live a normal life.
"This is a huge commercial opportunity," he said of the company whose shares are traded on Nasdaq and the Canadian Dealing Network. The shares (WHRTF/NASDAQ) closed yesterday up 1/8 at US$5 1/8.
World Heart is completing its manufacturing facility and the first devices will be used for clinical animal and human tests. The first human use is expected in 1999.
Bryden, who also owns the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League, said the company could be looking for more investment capital as it moves to the commercialization phase. It could also seek to list its shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange in the new year. "We're funded right now until the middle of 1999, but we could add more capital over 1998," he said.
"The next stage of commercialization will be another $50 million or so and once we get past that stage then the capital really relates to how successful the business is -- and I would expect this to become a very, very large business."
Bryden plans to manufacture the device in Canada, but noted that sometimes foreign health care systems, which could be buyers of the device, could attach conditions such as local manufacturing.
"We would prefer to manufacture in Canada and, at this point, we expect we will."
Industry Minister John Manley, whose department invested $5.5 million in the project, said the device could create a major medical devices industry in Canada, adding high-tech jobs. It is estimated 95% of the market for the device is in the U.S., Europe and Japan. Manley said the investment is a repayable loan and Ottawa has no equity stake in the project. The government expects the loan to be repaid once the company is in full-scale commercial production. The minister said it generally hopes to get a 15% return on its investments. |
