VenoStent Awarded Competitive Grant from National Institutes of Health

Houston, TX, April 15, 2020 – VenoStent, Inc. has been awardeda National Institutes of Health (NIH) Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I Grant, award number 1-R41-HL151-025-01 in the amount of $299,910. The award will allow VenoStent to conduct research and development (R&D) work to improve saphenous vein graft patency in peripheral (PABG) and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgeries, with the aid of collaborators at Houston Methodist Research Institute.

“We are very honored to have the NIH’s backing to work on reducing vein graft failures for patients that undergo PABG and CABG surgeries. Even with many advances in percutaneous interventions, bypass grafting is still considered by many to be the gold standard for treating severe lesions in patients with peripheral artery (PAD) or coronary artery disease (CAD). These diseases afflict nearly 30 million patients combined in the US, and there are over one million of these surgeries each year. Approximately 20% of the vein grafts in patients that undergo PABG fail within the first year, and 50% of them fail within 5 years in CABG patients. So while VenoStent has focused thus far on reducing hemodialysis access failures – a critical, rampant, and unaddressed problem that we are very passionate about – this NIH funding allows us to adapt our technology to potentially treat an even larger patient population starving for more innovative solutions” says VenoStent CEO and Principal Investigator on the grant, Timothy Boire, PhD.

NIH STTR and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants undergo a rigorous merit-based review process and are highly competitive, with a typical acceptance rate below 20%. Proposals are scored based on 5 criteria: significance (clinical and commercial), investigators (qualifications), innovation (of science and technology solution), approach (to scientifically addressing the clinical problem), and environment (to conduct the work). A small business that is awarded an NIH Phase I SBIR/STTR grant is more likely to receive an NIH Phase II grant of approximately $1.5M (sometimes allowable up to $3 - $4M), with an acceptance rate above 40%. Some small businesses with Phase II grants are eligible for additional, Phase IIB funding which awards $1M per year for up to three years.

From https://sbir.nih.gov: “The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and STTR programs, also known as America’s Seed Fund, are one of the largest sources of early-stage capital for technology commercialization in the United States. These programs allow US-owned and operated small businesses to engage in federal research and development that has a strong potential for commercialization. NIH’s SBIR and STTR programs invest over 1 billion dollars into health and life science companies that are creating innovative technologies that align with NIH’s mission to improve health and save lives. A key objective is to translate promising technologies to the private sector and enable life-saving innovations to reach consumer markets.”

VenoStent develops 3D-printable, bioresorbable, smart polymers to transform vascular surgery. Its initial focus is on extending the quality and length of life of hemodialysis patients, but a similar solution can be readily adopted to improve the lives of PABG and CABG patients.