Acquisition of Cannula Technology from UCLA

December 06 2017

Los Angeles, December 6, 2017 - Spectrum Medical has concluded a new exclusive licensing agreement with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Technology Development Group on behalf of UC Regents. The license relates to intellectual property that support clinical applications requiring Extracorporeal Circulation to support pulmonary gas exchange functions (ECMO) and/or circulatory support of the right heart.

“In partnering with UCLA on this exciting new technology Spectrum Medical has completed the development of a product strategy that will deliver in the medium term a unique full systems approach to the management of extracorporeal circulation,” said Steve Turner, Spectrum Medical CEO. “All of us at Spectrum Medical are committed to the advancement of both the practice and care of critically ill patients around the world”.  

UCLA Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Dr. Abbas Ardehali shared, “I am happy too and look forward to working with Spectrum Medical to bring this product into the clinical arena. This catheter will improve the care of patients with end-stage heart and lung diseases. The support of the CAI program and the UCLA school of Medicine Dean’s Office was instrumental in the success of this project from inception to the current state”. 

“The UC CAI funding from the NHLBI mechanism has enabled the commercial development of this new cardiovascular device to treat serious unmet medical need,” says Dr. Michael Palazzolo, Center Director for the UC CAI. “This is part of our ongoing mission to support the University of California faculty entrepreneurs to bring new discoveries to the patient and the market”.

Dr. Dubinett, UCLA Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, commented that “this is a collaboration that brings our innovative faculty together with the Center for Accelerated Innovation, the Clinical Translational Science Institute, the DGSOM and the TDG in partnership to assist in funding and business development for one of UCLA‘s most promising discoveries. We anticipate that bringing this discovery to product development will have a profound impact on patient care.”

“TDG is pleased to have been part of the successful partnership with DGSOM, CAI and our inventor Dr. Ardehali to protect, develop and license this very promising technology to Spectrum Medical”, said Emily Loughran, Senior Director of Licensing and Strategic Alliances. “Our ability to develop the originally nascent technology to a fledgling stage speaks not only to the aforementioned efforts but also to the great benefit of early stage proof of concept funding which was provided by the NHLBI. We believe that very targeted and carefully deployed seed funding is key to bringing other University technologies along the commercialization path and consider this project the type of success that we hope to see as we make seed grants through our new UCLA Innovation Fund which makes targeted investments in medical devices, therapeutics and digital health.”

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