Leading Pulmonologists Draw National Media Focus to Endobronchial Coil Treatment for Severe Emphysema

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 19, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- A revolutionary new treatment for severe emphysema, which could potentially help millions of patients suffering from a debilitating disease, has been featured recently on national media channels across the US.  Leading pulmonologists and premier medical centers have been reaching out to media outlets to share their enthusiasm about RePneu endobronchial coil therapy - a new treatment for emphysema patients.  The stories have highlighted physicians and patients taking part in an FDA-approved clinical study to evaluate endobronchial nitinol coil implants in patients with severe emphysema.  NBC News, CBS News and Fox News all have run prime-time segments in Los Angeles, Houston, Raleigh and New York.  RePneu Coil treatment was also recently featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal's Health section.  Local networks across the country, from North Dakota to Florida, have picked up and re-broadcast the segments, generating a flood of calls to treating centers from patients interested in participating in the RENEW Study.

The first national media spotlight on the RENEW Study featured Dr. Frank Sciurba from UPMC in Pittsburgh (PA), followed by a spot on WGN-Chicago and a radio interview featuring Dr. Ravi Kalhan of Northwestern University.  "This could potentially be a game-changer in the way we manage emphysema." said Dr. Sciurba. 

The RENEW Study is a 315-patient, multi-center trial comparing outcomes in patients who receive the RePneu Coil treatment to patients who receive routine medical care alone.  There are currently 24 hospitals across the U.S. enrolling patients in the RENEW Study, as well as a few centers in Europe and Canada.

The RePneu Coil is a minimally invasive device intended to improve exercise capacity, lung function, and quality of life for emphysema patients.  The implants are designed to compress diseased tissue, restore elastic recoil in the lung, and re-tension the diseased airway network, relieving breathlessness and allowing patients to perform more activities of daily living. 

Dr. Gerard Criner, Director of the Temple Lung Center, was featured with one of his patients on NBC News in Philadelphia (PA).  Dr. Criner stated that the coils "have the potential to be huge" and explained that, when the Coil "compresses the lung tissue, it actually re-tensions the lung.  It increases the recoil of the lung to expand the small airways."  NBC News also ran news stories on the Coil and the RENEW Study in Los Angeles (CA), with Dr. Joseph Cicenia of the Cleveland Clinic, and in Charleston (SC), with Dr. Charlie Strange of MUSC.

Although the RePneu Coil is undergoing clinical evaluation in the United States and is not yet approved for commercial use by the FDA, it has a CE Mark and has been used in Europe for the treatment of emphysema since 2008.  The Coil treatment has proven to be effective for a broad range of emphysema patients and adoption of the technique in routine clinical practice is rapidly expanding throughout major emphysema treatment centers across Europe.  A key advantage of the Coil is its simple mechanical design which is highly adaptive and has proven effective in treating patients with heterogeneous as well as homogeneous emphysema, and in upper and lower lobes.  The RePneu Coil works independently of collateral ventilation, a common condition in emphysema patients which disqualifies patients from treatment with other types of implants.

Fox Evening News featured Dr. Tim Connolly from Pulmonary Critical Care, Houston (TX) highlighting his experience treating patients with the RePneu Coils.  "To be able to impact a change like that is humbling but it's fantastic.  It's why we get up in the morning.  That's what it's all about," said Dr. Connolly. 

The Coil treatment also was featured on the front page of the Health section of the Wall Street Journal, with Dr. Atul Mehta of the Cleveland Clinic stating that the Coil has the potential "to help a significant number of patients have an improved quality of life, and potentially improve survival in a non-invasive manner."

"PneumRx is dedicated to improving the lives of emphysema patients, and we are gratified by the broad market acceptance of the RePneu Coil in Europe as well as the significant interest the RENEW Study has generated in the medical community here at home, " said Erin McGurk, President and CEO of PneumRx.  "Hearing and reading news stories about the improvements that patients have experienced after the Coil treatment is truly moving and rewarding.  We look forward to completing the RENEW Study and pursuing market approval in the U.S. so that the Coil treatment will be more readily available to the large numbers of people suffering from this terrible disease."

About PneumRx, Inc.

PneumRx, Inc. is a rapidly growing medical device company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative products to treat emphysema using minimally-invasive techniques.  It is a privately held company located in Mountain View, California.

About the RENEW Study

The Lung Volume Reduction Coil Treatment in Patients with Emphysema (RENEW) Study is an FDA-approved, IDE multi-center, randomized, controlled pivotal trial.  315 subjects will be treated in the RENEW Study at up to 30 US sites, plus 6 sites in Canada, France, Germany, the UK and the Netherlands.  For more about the RENEW Study, please visit www.pneumrx.com or www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?term=RENEW&Search=Search

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SOURCE PneumRx, Inc.