BioCrossroads Invests in Medical Device Company Developing Revolutionary Absorbable Stent

INDIANAPOLIS, Oct.20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — BioCrossroads’ Indiana Seed Fund has
announced its twelfth investment, committing $300,000 to medical device start-up
Zorion Medical. Zorion is developing a breakthrough device that combines novel
biomaterials with known drug and drug delivery technology in a unique design to
treat cardiovascular disease.

The initial product under development is a vascular stent that is being designed
so that it will be absorbed in the body within three to six months following
implantation. Zorion recently completed a successful pre-clinical study that
tested the absorption properties and biological response to the biomaterial
scaffold.

The BioCrossroads funding will support further proof-of-concept (POC) work in
another pre-clinical study targeted for the first quarter of 2012. In addition
to the Indiana Seed Fund, Periculum Capital, an Indianapolis-based private
investment and merchant banking group, has invested in Zorion.

“Zorion’s stent has the potential to be revolutionary within interventional
cardiology where the market is significant with more than one million stent
placements performed in the U.S. each year,” said David Johnson, President and
CEO of BioCrossroads. “Zorion’s experienced management team and innovative
device represent a promising combination of talent and technology, and the
company is exactly the type of start-up enterprise that fits into Indiana’s
entrepreneurial life sciences community. The Hoosier state is fortunate to be on
the receiving end of a truly measurable ‘brain gain’ through the addition and
relocation of the company’s chairman and industry veteran, David Broecker, from
Boston to Indianapolis.”

“Our vision is to develop a product that completely disappears within 3 to 6
months after it has been implanted and the body has had a chance to heal the
injured arterial site,” said Zorion Medical’s Broecker. “If we are successful,
our device will be more like a ‘splint’ rather than a ‘stent’. The funding from
BioCrossroads and Periculum Capital are critical for us to advance our program
through the next stages of development.”

The majority of other absorbable stent products in development by major
companies utilize polymer-based technologies which can take up to two years to
absorb, can be difficult to implant, and have limited clinical application and
utility. Zorion’s novel biomaterials and unique design will have the performance
and deployment characteristics of drug-eluting metal stents with the promise of
being completely absorbable, thereby avoiding many of the risks associated with
permanent stents and eliminating the need for long-term drug therapy to prevent
severe blood clots.

About BioCrossroads
BioCrossroads (www.biocrossroads.com) is Indiana’s initiative to grow, advance
and invest in the life sciences, a public?private collaboration that supports
the region’s existing research and corporate strengths while encouraging new
business development. BioCrossroads provides money and support to life sciences
businesses, launches new life sciences enterprises (Indiana Health Information
Exchange, Fairbanks Institute for Healthy Communities, BioCrossroadsLINX, and
Datalys Center), expands collaboration and partnerships among Indiana’s life
science institutions, promotes science education and markets Indiana’s life
sciences industry.

About the Indiana Seed Fund I
The $6 million, return?driven Indiana Seed Fund was launched in June 2005 and is
managed by BioCrossroads with funding from BioCrossroads, the Indiana Finance
Authority and the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. The Seed Fund
provides working capital in the range of $50,000?$500,000 to promising Indiana
life sciences companies at the preliminary stages of operation.

About Zorion Medical
Zorion Medical is focused on developing next-generation medical devices
leveraging novel biomaterial science and unique design for breakthrough results.
The company’s first product is a completely absorbable, drug-eluting stent being
developed to treat cardiovascular disease. The company intends to advance
product development through initial clinical studies and will seek commercial
partners for worldwide markets. zorionmedical.com

SOURCE BioCrossroads