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SAN FRANCISCO – September 29, 2019 – The Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF) is pleased to announce that InterVene, Inc., a South San Francisco based early stage medical device company, has won the TCT 2019 Shark Tank Innovation Competition which took place during the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT), the world’s premier educational meeting specializing in interventional cardiovascular medicine. The winner was also presented with the Jon DeHaan Foundation Award for Interventional Innovation today in the Main Arena of The Moscone Center.

“We are honored to name InterVene as the 2019 TCT Shark Tank Innovation Competition winner for their novel treatment for deep vein valve failure,” said Juan F. Granada, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation, the sponsor of TCT. “It’s a truly original concept with great potential to improve the survival and quality of life for patients suffering from chronic venous insufficiency due to deep vein reflux.”

Millions of Americans suffer from deep vein reflux (DVR) and moderate to severe chronic venous insufficiency (CVI). DVR occurs when valves in the veins of the legs fail, causing blood to pool in the legs rather than traveling back to the heart. DVR can lead to CVI, a condition characterized by elevated pressures in the veins of the leg that can lead to swelling, pain, and open wounds or leg ulcers. The current standard of care is compression therapy, leg elevation, and local wound care, none of which address the underlying problem of deep vein valve failure. Over time, symptoms become increasingly severe, debilitating, and costly to manage. InterVene is a minimally invasive, implant-free technology that allows physicians to form new vein valves out of the layers of tissue that naturally make up a patient’s vein wall.

Now in its sixth year, the TCT Shark Tank Innovation Competition was created to highlight the most innovative device concepts and technological developments with the potential to disrupt the field and dramatically change how patients are treated. Ten companies were chosen to present their concept among a distinguished panel of multidisciplinary experts and judged on the following criteria: unmet clinical need, out of the box concept, IP position/viability, biological proof of concept, regulatory pathway, and commercialization potential.

For the second year in a row, the TCT 2019 Shark Tank Innovation Competition partnered with the Jon DeHaan Foundation to provide a $200,000 award that will be given to the winner. The Jon DeHaan Foundation is dedicated to supporting those working to advance cardiac medicine and provides grants and awards to individuals and companies who focus on innovative developments in cardiovascular medicine, including research, prevention, diagnosis, treatment or rehabilitation.

“The Cardiovascular Research Foundation is very grateful to the Jon DeHaan Foundation for their generous support of pioneers in the field who are dedicated to developing new treatments for heart and vascular disease,” added Dr. Granada.

"The DeHaan Foundation is firmly committed to its major mission in supporting cardiovascular disease innovation in many forms, said Robert Schwartz, MD, Chairman of the Board for the Jon DeHaan Foundation. “The partnership with the Cardiovascular Research Foundation and TCT is an ideal collaboration to further this goal. We are pleased to continue these efforts with the Shark Tank sessions at TCT 2019."