A Medical Device Daily

Accuray (Sunnyvale, California), a developer of radiosurgery products, has entered into an agreement with CyberHeart (Menlo Park, California) for to use Accuray's technology to develop a non-invasive method for performing cardiac ablation.

Cardiac ablation is used to destroy a small portion of the heart causing abnormal rhythms. Ultimately, the developed technology may have applications in the treatment of atrial fibrillation, a disorder that prevents the heart from beating properly and can cause blood clots and strokes.

CyberHeart is exploring the use of Accuray's CyberKnife robotic radiosurgery system to generate these lesions non-invasively. The system's intelligent robotics, accuracy and tracking capabilities will be used to target the heart's affected tissue and create an ablation lesion.

"The heart is not an organ that is typically treated with radiation. However, CyberHeart believes that by using highly accurate radiosurgery technology, we can effectively ablate cardiac tissue and potentially create a lesion that can block abnormal cardiac rhythm," said Patrick Maguire, MD, PhD, president/CEO of CyberHeart. "Accuray's CyberKnife system is the only technology available today that offers the precision needed to ensure only very specific regions of the heart are treated. We expect to begin initial clinical trials in 12 to 18 months and it is our objective to bring the product to market in the next three to four years."

CyberHeart said it has received commitments for independent venture capital financing to fund technical and clinical R&D of a cardiac ablation system that incorporates Accuray's technology. It said that in the event that it is able to develop and commercialize such a system, Accuray will be the sole supplier of radiosurgery equipment to CyberHeart, entitled to receive royalties based on CyberHeart system use.

In other agreement news:

• Hemedex (Cambridge, Massachusetts) has reached an agreement with Johnson & Johnson's (New Brunswick, New Jersey) Codman & Shurtleff (Raynham, Massachusetts) for Codman to distribute what it called "the only minimally invasive device that can measure cerebral blood flow and cerebral tissue perfusion in absolute units, in real time."

Adequate cerebral tissue perfusion is an essential requirement to maintain brain function. The Hemedex QFlow 500 perfusion probe is placed into targeted cerebral tissue where it responds to changes in cerebral perfusion, allowing modificaiton of therapy. The probe is connected to the Bowman perfusion monitor, which calculates, stores and displays the perfusion data. The technology is used to better identify and manage patients at risk for complications from stroke, traumatic brain injury and subarachnoid hemorrhage due to decreased cerebral blood flow by providing continuous, real-time, soft-tissue perfusion measurements in absolute units.

Codman develops diagnostic and therapeutic products for the treatment of central nervous system disorders.

Hemedex, founded in 2000, develops devices that quantify blood perfusion at the capillary level for applications in various clinical indications.

• Compugen (Tel Aviv, Israel) reported a collaboration with the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota) for discovering and validating biomarkers for the presence of unstable atherosclerotic plaque in coronary artery disease (CAD) and cerebrovascular disease.

Vulnerable plaque is regarded as the most common cause of complications from CAD, leading to increased incidence of heart attack and stroke. Currently, there are no diagnostic tests to identify patients with unstable atherosclerotic plaques, according to Compugen.

Compugen's integrated analysis will incorporate data derived from biological materials provided by Mayo, as well as Compugen's own expression and clinical data. Compugen will have exclusive commercialization rights for products resulting from this collaboration, with Mayo to receive milestones under the agreement.

Compugen's defines its mission as discovering and licensing product candidates to the drug and diagnostic industry.