Giving money for research? Investing in a startup is another path
CorInnova is a Houston startup passing through the Valley of Death.
No, not the biblical one, the financial one.
Many great efforts in the medical field end because it takes seven to 10 years to transform an idea into a product that is salable and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The capital-devouring space between the lab and the market is nicknamed the Valley of Death because so few startups make it through, regardless of their products’ merit.
CorInnova stands a better chance than most, with its device that helps people suffering heart failure. And the startup’s CEO, William Altman, has been building health care companies for 25 years. But it will still be a challenge to deliver a device that could save millions of lives.
Some 960,000 Americans experience heart failure every year, with 26 million total cases worldwide. Failing hearts are too weak to pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs, and 300,000 American die from them every year.
There are ventricular assist devices designed to help failing hearts pump blood, but they have all kinds of complications because the machine comes into contact with the blood. The devices will trigger strokes in about 15 percent of patients.
CorInnova’s device, called EpicHeart, is inserted into the chest and opens like an umbrella to fit around the heart like a thinfilm glove. A pacemaker drives a pneumatic chamber that squeezes and relaxes the heart, helping it pump blood at a normal pressure and rate.
The idea came from research at Texas A&M University’s Cardiac Mechanics Lab by Dr. John Criscione, who was funded by grants from the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health. He has since successfully used the device on sheep, which have hearts similar in size to humans.
“We have a reliable increase in cardiac output from animals, 30 to
50 percent,” Altman said.
Criscione, who cofounded CorInnova to commercialize the device, is the chief technology officer. Altman’s job is to manage the company and navigate the process of gaining U.S. and European approval to use EpicHeart on humans.
Because the device fits around the heart and does not touch the blood, patients do not have the stroke and bleeding complication that come with existing devices.
Once approved, the first patients will likely be people waiting on transplants, or people over 72 who often can’t handle the other devices, Altman said.
“It’s way less invasive than an implant, and because we don’t touch the blood, we can avoid many, many of the complications that can lead to rehospitalizations,” he added. “It can be used on three or four times more patients than the current devices can be used on.”
Researchers also believe the device could be used to strengthen the hearts of people who have suffered severe heart attacks. Altman said he believes the cost of treatment with EpicHeart would lead to significant cost savings over current devices.
CorInnova has another 12 to 18 months of animal testing to complete, and after that, it should be ready to implant the device in a human for the first time.
Frequent readers know that I believe the Texas Medical Center should be spinning off more companies and diversifying Houston’s economy so that it can thrive without depending on oil and natural gas. And we’re making important steps in that direction.
Startup incubators and accelerators like JLABS, which is hosting CorInnova, and TMCx are finally building enough wet-lab and office space for inventors to team with entrepreneurs to take on the Valley of Death. What’s still needed are more investors and more business expertise.
This is where I think Houston’s philanthropists may be missing the plot. Generous businesspeople are more than happy to add a wing at a hospital or write a fat check to a charity such as the American Heart Association to finance basic research. But they are not investing in the companies that turn research into products. When a great idea fails to make it into the marketplace, the charitable donation for the research was wasted.
The Wellcome Trust, a British-based foundation, has promised CorInnova a $6.1 million matching grant, which means it will match private investor dollars in the company up to that amount. It’s called a translation fund, which is convertible into equity in the company if it succeeds.
“We’re in the Valley of Death, essentially, so they gave us a translation fund award to get our device to the point of being fundable by venture capitalists, and once we’re first-in-human, I know we are venture fundable,” Altman said. “They measure success by the number of things that actually make it into the clinic.”
If CorInnova fails, Wellcome will have contributed to very worthy research. If the device succeeds, the profits can be reinvested in other startups.
That’s the kind of thinking that helps Houston’s medical startups succeed and an attitude more Houstonians should consider adopting.