Companies In Cardiovascular Research

CryoCath Technologies Inc. (TSX: CYT)

www.cryocath.com/en/

CEO: Henri Vienneau

CSO: Jean-Pierre Desmarais

227 employees

R&D 2005: CAN$ 10.3 million

CryoCath is a medical technology company that leads the world in creating catheter- and probe-based CryoTherapy products to treat cardiovascular disease. Traditionally, the use of freezing temperatures to treat diseased tissue has been limited by the inability to deliver the treatment in a minimally invasive manner. CryoCath has successfully overcome this obstacle by developing flexible, steerable, minimally invasive catheters to deliver cold therapy safely and effectively.

CryoCath established its pre-eminence in catheter-based CryoTherapy products for the electrophysiology ablation market with its first commercial product, Freezor®. CryoCath now serves a second major market, cardiac surgeons, with its unique SurgiFrost® Surgical CryoAblation System for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias.

CryoCath won the Ernst & Young Canada Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Health Sciences in 2005.

Chronogen Inc.

www.chronogen.com/page.php?id=12.2

CEO: Max Fehlmann, Ph.D., MBA

CSO: Siegfried Hekimi, Ph.D.

30 employees

Chronogen is a privately-owned biotechnology company, founded in 1998 by Siegfried Hekimi (McGill University). The company has a remarkable know-how in the genetics of aging and has initially developed a series of unique, rapid and reliable screening assays aimed at the identification of small molecule modulators mimicking genetic effects that prolong the lifespan of C. elegans and mouse mutants. Most of the identified genes modulate pathways clinically relevant to human pathologies.

Chronogen has been able to develop drugs targeting different metabolic pathways: modulation of reactive oxygen species, growth factor signalling and lipoprotein metabolism (slow behaviour).  Chronogen has shown pharmacologically that the slow rhythm of clk-1 mutants can be suppressed by limiting the availability of dietary cholesterol, as well as by treatments with statins, fibrates, MTP inhibitors or pan-LXR agonists. Thus, this system is amenable to identifying molecules that affect cholesterol uptake, cholesterol synthesis, lipoprotein secretion, reverse cholesterol transport, and alterations in HDL metabolism.

Using this system, large libraries of molecules have been screened. Most of the known hypolipidemic drugs were found positive in this screening model. In addition to these known drugs, other proprietary compounds (e.g. CHGN005) have been identified and appear to be non-toxic.

Chronogen is also developing CHGN104 for the prophylaxis of radiocontrast induced nephropathy (RCN) in Cardiology: a cellular oxidative stress modulator with a new mechanism of action to fight oxidative stress, which is in preclinical development. An IND is anticipated by the end of 2006.

AccelLAB Inc.

www.accellab.com/index.html

CEO : Guy Leclerc, M.D.

VP Science: Louis-George Guy, Ph.D.

40 employees

AccelLAB is a non-clinical Contract Research Organization (CRO) focused on large animal testing with a special focus in the field of interventional cardiology and regenerative medicine offering services from early drug or device development to late-stage non-clinical GLP studies.

AccelLAB offers its clients services in coronary stent development, drug-eluting stent studies, peripheral device development, cardiac cell transplant studies, etc.

Its team has been working together for over 5 years and is made of specialists such as veterinarians, animal health technicians, pathologists, and histology experts. This team is driven by Dr. Guy Leclerc, a lead interventional cardiologist from the University of Montreal Hospital.

This document had been prepared by: Montréal International