Endovasc-TissueGen Research Sponsors, LLC

Biodegradable, Drug Eluting, Vascular Stents:

Originally, stenting was developed as a catheter-based procedure in which a stent (a small, expandable wire mesh tube) is inserted into a diseased artery and serves as scaffolding to keep vessels open following surgery or angioplasty.

Despite their use in more than 1 million procedures each year and growing (U.S.), stents are plagued by two problems: acute occlusion due to thrombosis and persistent occurrence of restenosis (re-blockage).

As a result, physicians and companies began testing a variety of drugs for their ability to prevent restenosis. Researchers coated the stents with these agents, and the drug-eluting stents were tested on both bare metal stents as well as stents coated with a thin polymer that conferred the ability to release the drug slowly, over time.

Currently, many cardiovascular experts predict the next generation of drug-eluting stents will be comprised of a biocompatible, biodegradable, resorbable material with the strength to acutely open and maintain the confirmation of a vessel or duct. The advantage is that they gradually dissolve while delivering the drug. At the end of a predetermined period, nothing is left at the site where it was introduced.

The Endovasc-TissueGen Joint Venture is developing a product to provide precise local delivery of undiluted drugs, agents or bioactive agents. Its first candidate will be prostaglandin E-1 to block restenosis that will serve as a "second generation" anti-restenosis product. Other therapeutic agents could also be delivered in this manner.

Using standard catheter–based angioplasty technology, a drug-eluting, biodegradable stent could be placed directly into diseased organs, tissues, systems, circuits, or networks (such as neural networks) to treat the disease and control dosing from the prosthesis over weeks or even months.