NMT Medical Inc. (NSDQ:NMTI) named a group of physicians and scientists from leading hospitals and research institutions to shore up its scientific advisory board in anticipation of the data analysis portion of a clinical trial of the company’s StarFlex implant.
The Boston, Mass.-based device company, which is developing implants to treat structural heart disease through catheter-based procedures, named eight to the board, which it says will advise executives on issues related to its ongoing Closure 1 clinical trial.
The trial, which is intended to demonstrate whether NMT‘s catheter-based implant procedure to patch small holes between chambers of the heart is more effective than standard drug treatments in preventing the re-occurrence of stroke, is set to enter its data analysis phase.
The company has been very active in recent weeks in anticipation of the analysis phase, wrapping up a $5.8 million private placement to fund the trials and bringing back former CEO John Ahern to sit on the company’s board.
The scientific advisory board members are:
- Lee Benson, Director, Cardiac Diagnostic and Interventional Unit, Division of Cardiology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada;
- Daniel F. Hanley, Professor of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore;
- Christian Jux, Head, Pediatric Catheterisation Laboratory, Pediatric Heart Centre Giessen, Giessen, Germany;
- Saibal Kar, Director, Interventional Cardiac Research, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, Calif.;
- Michael J. Landzberg, Director, Boston Adult Congenital Heart and Pulmonary Hypertension Service, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston;
- James E. Lock, Chief, Department of Cardiology, Children’s Hospital Boston;
- Ramon Quesada, Medical Director of Interventional Cardiology, Baptist Cardiac and Vascular Institute, Miami;
- Robert Sommer, Director of the Adult Invasive Congenital Heart Services, Center for Interventional Vascular Therapy, New York-Presbyterian Hospital / Columbia University Medical Center, New York.