Cardiovate grafts patent and new CEO

Cardiovate, a biomedical technology spin-out, has completed a patent and technology license agreement with the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), and the University of Texas Health Science Centre San Antonio. The agreement lets the company continue its research and product development.

At the same time, the company has also announced the hiring of Mark Standeford. He will take over as CEO. Standeford has 27 years of experience in the medical device industry, having developed and commercialised more than 35 new devices which have generated billions of dollars in revenue. Cardiovate will also be profiting from Standeford’s experience in setting strategy and leading growth as well as business development opportunities. He has previously worked at KCI and Hill-Rom, and served as president of M&C Services, a business consultancy.

Based on research at UTSA, the company was launched in 2012. Its skin graft technology is based on Jordan Kaufmann’s doctoral research, who developed it with the help of Mauli Agrawal, vice-president for research, and Dr Steven Bailey, division chief for cardiology at the University of Texas Health Science Centre San Antonio School of Medicine. Agrawal and Bailey serve on the company’s board of directors.

Kaufmann won the University of Texas Horizon Fund Student Investment Competition, worth $50,000 in seed funding, in 2012. In 2013 at the Innotech Conference, She then went on to win the pitch competition at the Emerging Medical Technology Symposium at the Innotech conference in 2013. Cardiovate is currently based at the New Venture Incubator on UTSA’s main campus.

Mark Standeford said: “The ability to help treat and heal the body is the basis for health care. The technology developed by Cardiovate will better address the tissue regeneration needs that exist by providing a product that has the benefits of a synthetic with the physiological outcomes of a biologic. Better healing with lower risks and treatment costs are key objectives with these products. This will allow us to develop a portfolio of opportunities that will generate considerable value for patients, clinicians and for the company.”