[caption id="attachment_27572" align="alignright" width="300"] Sapheon’s disposable three-part delivery system closes malfunctioning veins without surgery or burning.[/caption]
SANTA ROSA -- Sapheon Inc., a maker of venous disease treatments formerly based in Santa Rosa, has been sold to Covidien, a global health care company based in Dublin, Ireland.
Covidien had 2013 revenue of about $10 billion. Details of the deal were not disclosed.
“If left untreated, varicose veins can progress into a chronic and life threatening condition,” said Mark Turco, M.D., chief medical officer, Vascular Therapies, Covidien, in a statement. “The VenaSeal system is a minimally invasive technology, and unlike open surgery and other more invasive procedures, patients are often able to quickly regain their lifestyle.”
Sapheon was incubated in the University of Northern California incubator in 2007 and moved to Morrisville, N.C., in 2011. But the startup still had among its 300-plus investors a number of North Bay contributors, according to Simon Inman, a partner of Carle Mackie Power & Ross who represented Sapheon initially and during the transaction. Attorney Adam Rosenblum and paralegal Theresa Gates also were involved in the transaction.
Sapheon makes the VenaSeal system that uses a medical adhesive to close the great saphenous vein in patients with varicose veins and chronic venous insufficiency. The minimally invasive outpatient procedure is done with a catheter under ultrasound guidance. The procedure requires no tumescent anesthesia, which involves multiple anesthesia injections, and results in less bruising than traditional thermal treatments.
The VenaSeal system, which has been used to treat some 2,000 patients, is approved in Canada, Europe and Hong Kong. The system is limited to investigational use in the United States.
Sapheon also completed enrollment and followup of a VeCLOSE clinical trial in the United States and sought premarket approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The treatment allows complete closure of a vein after treatment.
Sapheon’s specialty is advanced treatment for venous reflux disease, which prompted nearly 550,000 surgical procedures worldwide in 2012.
AMPLIFICATION, Sept. 8, 2014: Sapheon was incubated in the University of Northern California incubator in 2007 and moved to Morrisville, N.C., in 2011. But the startup still had among its 300-plus investors a number of North Bay contributors, according to Simon Inman, a partner of Carle Mackie Power & Ross who represented Sapheon initially and during the transaction. Attorney Adam Rosenblum and paralegal Theresa Gates also were involved in the transaction.
