Partners

Partners in Pharmaceutical Research

InfraReDx believes that the NIR system could potentially assist pharmaceutical companies in their efforts to develop new agents against atherosclerosis.

First, the InfraReDx system can be used to assist in the difficult transition from research in animals to research in patients. The InfraReDx catheter can be used in a rabbit aorta or other animal model to determine its ability to detect beneficial effects of a novel anti-atherosclerotic agent. If such an effect can be detected by the NIR system, identical measurements could be made in the coronary arteries of patients.

Second, the InfraReDx system can be used to identify groups of patients with extensive atherosclerotic changes in their coronary arteries. While natural history studies are needed to provide the linkage between such changes and coronary events, it is suspected that such changes will identify patients with a higher event rate and permit the testing of new pharmaceutical agents in a smaller number of individuals.

Partners in the Medical Device Industry

InfraReDx believes that its system for improved plaque characterization will be of assistance to companies that are developing stents and other devices for treatment of coronary artery disease. Currently, stent intervention has no proven benefit of preventing subsequent myocardial infarction and cardiac death. If subsequent research indicates that lipid-rich plaques can be identified by NIR spectroscopy and that such identified plaques are likely vulnerable, it is possible to then study if the placement of stents at such locations could provide the needed effectiveness against secondary cardiac events.