Invatec Launches First Drug-Eluting Balloon Designed to Treat Atherosclerosis Below the Knee

LEIPZIG, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Invatec, a comprehensive innovator of interventional products, today announced the European launch of a new peripheral balloon, the IN.PACT™ Amphirion paclitaxel-eluting PTA balloon catheter. This is the first drug-eluting catheter designed specifically to treat atherosclerosis in arteries located below the knee (BtK). IN.PACT features FreePac™, a proprietary coating that frees and separates paclitaxel molecules and facilitates their absorption into the wall of the artery.

The FreePac coating was developed in close collaboration with the researchers who pioneered drug-eluting balloon therapy, Ulrich Speck, Ph.D., Department of Radiology at Charite Mitte, Berlin and Bruno Scheller, M.D., University Hospital, Department of Internal Medicine, Homburg/Saar. “According to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine1 and Circulation2, drug-eluting balloons utilizing a special drug elution formulation have demonstrated effectiveness in the treatment of atherosclerosis and the prevention of restenosis,” commented Andrea Venturelli and Stefan Widensohler, co-founders of Invatec. “Invatec is taking this approach further by offering a drug elution therapy targeted specifically for below the knee interventions and placing it on a market-leading, state-of-the-art platform, the Amphirion Deep balloon catheter.”

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