Firm to make catheters for heart diseases

Eurocor GmbH, a group firm of medical technology leader Opto Circuits India Ltd, Friday entered into a licensing agreement with Biosensors International Group Ltd, a Singapore-based medical devices maker, to manufacture catheters for treating heart diseases.

As part of the agreement, Eurocor will manufacture three medical devices using Biosensors' drug eluting balloon (DEB) technology for treating coronary and artery diseases, while the latter will market them worldwide.

"The three devices are drug-eluting balloon dilatation catheters designed for percutaneous transluminal angioplasty. The first one -- BioStream has been developed for coronary arteries, BioPath for treating patients with peripheral arterial disease and BioPath 035 for peripheral intervention above knee," the company said in a statement here.

The devices will feature Eurocor's proprietary coating, delivering paclitaxel, an anti-restenotic drug, used in DEB applications.

"The innovative devices will complement our cardiac stents and facilitate our entry into the peripheral vascular disease market," Biosensors cardiovascular division president Jeffrey B. Jump said in the statement.

The devices will be launched in European markets and in select regions across Asia, Africa and West Asia after securing the European Conformance Marking (CE) in next six weeks.

"The agreement validates our DEB products and enables us to enter the rapidly-growing sector of the interventional devices market," Eurocor chief operating officer Antonino Laudani said.

As a vertically integrated medical technology group, the Bangalore-based Opto Circuits specialises in primary, acute and critical care devices for global markets.

Specialising in research, development and manufacture of cardiovascular and endovascular products, Eurocor provides interventional physicians with coronary stents and special cardiovascular and endovascular devices.