MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Sanovas is expanding its corporate headquarters and opening a manufacturing facility in Sausalito, Calif. as it prepares to file for FDA clearance for its drug-delivery technology.
The company’s micro-surgical technologies feature what Sanovas calls the world’s smallest surgical camera to access hard-to-reach areas of the body and provide minimally invasive diagnosis, treatment and drug delivery, according to a press release.
Sanovas, a company inspired by the founders of minimally invasive surgery, aims to file for FDA 510(k) clearance in the first half of 2012 and hopes to launch full-scale manufacturing by the end of the year.
Its first treatment target is lung cancer and pulmonary disease, conditions that are pervasive in the U.S. and throughout the world.
"With nearly 1 in 7 American’s currently suffering from a chronic pulmonary disease and another 96 million at risk there is an urgent humanitarian need for these next-generation solutions," CEO Larry Gerrans said in prepared remarks.
The company’s VAS Zeppelin product platform consists of 5 technologies involving imaging, catheter-based access and intervention, "smart" technology and drug delivery – all on a scale small enough to fit into the 1mm to 3mm commonly found in the lungs outer reaches.
It’s designed to eliminate the need to crack open patients’ chests to access the lungs – and the 7-day in-hospital recovery time for such procedures, Gerrans told MassDevice during a Q&A in November.
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