Corvion – developer of fully implanted mechanical circulatory support devices – announced today that William Cohn, MD and Sean Morris have been appointed to the company’s Board of Directors, effective immediately.
Dr. Cohn currently serves as Vice President for Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies and the Executive Director of the Center for Device Innovation at the Texas Medical Center in Houston. In addition, he is a tenured Professor of Surgery in the Department of Cardiac Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Assist at Baylor College of Medicine and an Adjunct Professor of Bioengineering at both Rice University and the University of Houston. Dr. Cohn has a passion for medical device development and has more than 150 U.S. patents granted or pending for his medical device innovations that have provided the core technology for eight venture-backed medical start-ups, four of which have been acquired by large med-tech companies.
Mr. Morris currently serves as Chief Executive Officer for Euphrates Vascular, Inc. Sean is also a Director for two early-stage medical device companies and was previously CEO of Veniti Medical, a company he founded which was eventually sold to Boston Scientific. Earlier in his career, Sean had progressively increasing roles of responsibility at AngioDynamics, eventually serving as Senior Vice President and General Manager in their peripheral vascular division. Mr. Morris has been highly active in venture backed medical device development for over a decade and has successfully guided multiple startups through capital raise, product development, regulatory approval, and strategic exit phases.
“We are delighted to welcome Dr. Cohn and Sean to our Board. Dr. Cohn has deep knowledge and experience in the field of mechanical circulatory support (MCS), including efforts to develop fully implanted technologies to eliminate percutaneous drivelines. Dr. Cohn understands the challenges of MCS and how important eliminating the driveline will be for patients and their caregivers. Sean brings invaluable experience in the stages of developing, funding, and commercializing cardiovascular devices. Sean’s knowledge in bringing multiple companies from concept to successful commercial launch will be a key factor as we progress down the same path for the Corvion LVAD,” said Greg S. Aber, Chief Executive Officer of Corvion.
“Corvion has developed a next generation left ventricular assist device that has the potential to expand application of mechanical circulatory assist to tens of thousands of additional patients each year. Through my work at the Texas Heart Institute and the legendary Cullen Cardiovascular Research Lab, I am intimately familiar with most of the other devices that are commercially available or under development. It will be exciting to see Corvion’s impact on this relatively new and impactful field,” said Dr. Cohn.
“Greg and his team have worked effectively and efficiently toward solving core deficiencies in the current LVAD device technology space. No doubt, patients will benefit from the innovations conceptualized by the Corvion team. Such improvements will lead to a more normal lifestyle for patients in a post LVAD world, positively impacting quality of life – which has potential to fundamentally change and grow the market. I look forward to helping Greg and his team make big strides during this very exciting time,” said Mr. Morris.
About Corvion:
Corvion (www.corvion.com) is a pre-clinical stage medical device company focused on bringing fully implanted heart assist technology to the worldwide market for mechanical circulatory support. By developing a highly efficient implantable rotary blood pump (3X more efficient than competitors) coupled with a robust and flexible transcutaneous (through the skin) charging technology, the company aims to dramatically improve patient outcomes and quality of life.
