Medical device firm Tryton Medical is hiring an executive from AngioDynamics (NASDAQ:ANGO) to become the company’s new president and CEO.
Shawn McCarthy, who will join Durham, North Carolina-based Tryton in June, is AngioDynamics’ senior vice president and general manager overseeing the company’s vascular and oncology surgery business units. AngioDynamics disclosed McCarthy’s job change in a securities filing that did not name Tryton, but described it only as “an early stage medical device company with coronary stent technology.” Tryton later followed with its own announcement of McCarthy’s hire.
AngioDynamics reported $12.3 million in net income on $216 million in fiscal 2010 revenue from sales of medical products in applications including vascular, oncology and renal treatments. Tryton is a much smaller operation by comparison with $1.7 million in 2010 revenue, but the company believes that its technology fills an important medical need. Tryton has developed a stent system to treat bifurcation lesions, a condition where plaque has built up at the juncture of an artery and a side branch. The stent system supports both the main artery and the side branch. It is commercially available in 21 countries and recently received additional European clearance on larger diameter stents. The stent system is undergoing clinical testing in the United States where it remains an investigational treatment.
McCarthy succeeds former Tryton CEO J. Greg Davis, who joined Tryton in 2008, following a 20-year career at Guidant and Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY). Davis, who helped privately held Tryton close a $20 million series D round of venture capital financing last September, left Tryton in February.
McCarthy has nearly 20 years of medical device experience, including 10 years at Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ). He had several positions at Cordis Corporation, a Johnson & Johnson company, rising to the position of worldwide vice president of marketing before taking the post at AngioDynamics. Before working at Cordis, McCarthy was senior global product manager for the respiratory division of Sunrise Medical. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and an MBA, both from Syracuse University.
“Shawn’s strong track record of sales and marketing success, and deep understanding of our customers will serve Tryton well as we look ahead to continued expansion in Europe and commercialization of the Tryton Side Branch Stent in the U.S.,” Rick Anderson, Tryton board member and managing director of PTV Sciences said in a prepared statement.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Tryton was founded in 2003 by Dr. Aaron Kaplan, a professor of medicine at the Dartmouth Medical School/Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and Dan Cole to develop stents treating bifurcation lesions. The company relocated from Massachusetts to Durham in 2008.
Tryton continues to enroll patients in its U.S. clinical trial, which began last December.
