Results of the Shortcut study, presented last week at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics meeting in San Francisco, indicated that cutting balloon angioplasty matched intravascular lithotripsy in coronary artery preparation of calcification for stent placement.

The Pi-Cardia Ltd. Shortcut — the catheter-based, leaflet modification solution for treating heart valves — received U.S. FDA clearance. The device was granted breakthrough device designation from the regulatory agency and is designed to split bioprosthetic aortic valve leaflets in patients undergoing valve-in-valve transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedures who are at risk of coronary obstruction.

Following last week’s FDA approval of its Onyx Frontier drug eluting stent (DES), Medtronic plc released results at EuroPCR from a real-world, multicenter prospective study using its Resolute Onyx platform for percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) in the left main artery. Rehovot, Israel-based Pi-Cardia Ltd. also released early data for patients treated with its Short Cut transcatheter device for coronary obstruction prevention.

A medical device company has partnered with a couple of investment firms to tap new technologies and help bring them back to China. Venus Medtech (Hangzhou) Inc. formed a health care investment platform, Ascendum Capital Partners, to invest in new medical devices and technologies around the world, particularly in the cardiovascular and lung disease spaces.

Pi-Cardia Ltd. has raised a $27 million round of financing led by Sofinnova Partners. The Rehovot, Israel-based company will use the round to back parallel U.S. feasibility and European pivotal trials of its catheter-based, nonimplant heart valve calcification treatment.