CryoLife: Take a little piece of my heart (and fix it)

It’s not much fun when you offer to give your heart to the apple of your eye and the transaction is declined. Oh, it’s painful, but usually nothing a long bubble bath or a series of cold, fermented beverages can’t wash away.

However, it’s a true matter of life and death when a transplant recipient’s body rejects actual donated heart tissue.

That’s why doctors and investors alike are excited by the launch of a new technique developed by Kennesaw, Ga.-based CryoLife, Inc. (NYSE:CRY) called SynerGraft that’s expected to significantly reduce transplanted heart valve rejection, not to mention boost revenues along the way.

This is big news for the $256 million market cap developer of biomaterials and surgical implant devices that knows a thing or two about rejection itself (more on that shortly).

Among its enviable arsenal of products, CryoLife offers: an increasingly profitable surgical adhesive called BioGlue, which alone generates around 45% of total revenues; a wound sealer called BioFoam, currently being modified for battlefield applications with military R&D funding; transplantable porcine heart valves; and vascular grafts of bovine tissue.

Besides these products, the company is also a well-known leader in the cryo-preservation and distribution of donated cardiovascular and vascular tissue for transplant. CryoLife was hit hard in 2002, though, when it was ordered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to recall and halt the production and sale of non-valved cardiac vascular and orthopedic tissue after reports of infections and injuries resulting from implanted tissues surfaced. The order prompted huge sell-offs of the stock.

Then, heartbreakingly, after just getting its circulation back with improved quality controls, third-party accreditation and regained FDA approval, CryoLife once again . . .

For access to the full article, you must be a registered member - it's FREE.

Already a member? Please log in below