Tufts Medical Center and ATON Partners Announce Formation of CereVasc, LLC

BOSTON, Aug. 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Tufts Medical Center and ATON Partners, LLC today announced  the formation of CereVasc, LLC, a research and product development stage company, focused on innovative treatments of neurological diseases.  Initially CereVasc, LLC will develop a novel technology designed by the neurosurgical team at Tufts Medical Center to dramatically improve the process and lower the cost of treatment of communicating hydrocephalus. 

Communicating hydrocephalus affects more than 300,000 patients in the United States and represents a $1 billion annual medical cost in the U.S. alone.  For more than 50 years the disease has been treated in the same way, using a ventriculo-peritoneal shunt and surgical procedure. The current standard of care is not only costly, but historically has been plagued by significant morbidity and a very high rate of failure, requiring frequent revision surgeries and suboptimal outcomes, which are thought to limit its use.  The new device and treatment approach, developed by Carl Heilman, M.D. Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at Tufts Medical Center and Adel Malek, M.D. Ph.D., Chief of Neurovascular Surgery at Tufts MC, is an entirely new approach, which has the potential to dramatically reduce the cost and morbidity associated with the current standard of care, while significantly increasing the number of patients eligible for treatment.

"The invention by Dr. Heilman and Dr. Malek represents a novel and highly differentiated approach to hydrocephalus treatment, which we believe has the potential to transform the treatment of this disease.  We also believe that the simplicity of this new approach may substantially increase the number of patients who are treated for a specific form of this disorder known as Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus, thought to affect thousands of elderly patients in the U.S.," said Daniel Levangie, Managing Partner of ATON Partners LLC.

"We're delighted to work with the team from ATON Partners on this venture," said Richard Karas, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Science Officer of Tufts Medical Center. "It has the potential to change the standard of care for communicating hydrocephalus."

"We believe this technology has the potential to significantly improve the treatment of hydrocephalus, particularly for the thousands of elderly patients who suffer from normal pressure hydrocephalus," said Dr. Heilman. "We are excited to advance its development and bring it to clinical use."

About Tufts Medical Center
Tufts Medical Center is an exceptional, not-for-profit, 415-bed academic medical center that is home to both a full-service hospital for adults and Floating Hospital for Children. Conveniently located in downtown Boston, the Medical Center is the principal teaching hospital for Tufts University School of Medicine. Floating Hospital for Children is the full-service children's hospital of Tufts Medical Center and the principal pediatric teaching hospital of Tufts University School of Medicine. Tufts Medical Center is affiliated with the New England Quality Care Alliance, a network of nearly 1,800 physicians throughout Eastern Massachusetts. For more information, please visit www.tuftsmedicalcenter.org.  

About ATON Partners, LLC
ATON Partners, LLC is a Boston-based private management advisory and investment firm focused on healthcare sector-related companies and technologies, led by Patrick Sullivan, formerly President and Chief Executive Officer of Cytyc Corporation and Daniel Levangie, formerly Executive Vice President of Cytyc Corporation and President of Cytyc's Surgical Products Division.  ATON Partners focuses exclusively on companies involved in the development and commercialization of medical devices and in vitro diagnostics as well as investments in innovative, healthcare-related platform technologies and companies where the principals will be able to leverage their product development, regulatory, clinical and commercial experience.  For more information, visit www.ATONPartners.com  ATON Partners, LLC is located at 75 Arlington Street, Suite 500, Boston, MA 02116.

SOURCE ATON Partners