PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Percutaneous Systems, Inc. (PercSys) announced today that it has named two well known medical device entrepreneurs to its Board of Directors. They include David Auth, Ph.D., a medical device executive, educator, innovator and investor, and Howard Palefsky, a leading med-tech venture capitalist.
"PercSys is extraordinarily fortunate to gain the guidance of two of the legendary figures of the medical device industry," stated Robert S. Behl, PercSys founder and chief executive officer. "We look forward to working with these industry leaders as we seek to develop innovative solutions to serious medical problems."
Most recently, Dr. Auth has served as a board member and/or inventor with several medical device companies, including RadioTherapeutics and Novacept prior to their acquisitions, as well as Pathway Medical Technology, Coaptus, Medlogics, Mirabilis, Guided Delivery Systems, Arstasis, and Spineview. Previously, he founded Heart Technology Inc. in 1988 to commercialize his Rotablator invention. Heart Technology became a public company in 1992 and was acquired by Boston Scientific in 1995. Dr. Auth began his career as a professor of engineering at the University of Washington, where he became involved in the embryonic field of bioengineering. He and his graduate students performed seminal studies on multipolar radio frequency hemostasis and fast pulse thermal cautery, leading to the invention of three successful commercial products: the ACMI BICAP, the Olympus HPU, and the Novacept Novasure devices.
Mr. Palefsky has 35 years of experience as an entrepreneur and investor in medical device and pharmaceutical companies. He has been a general partner/managing member of Montreux Equity Partners since 2002 and was a venture partner of Montreux from 1999 to 2002. Prior to joining Montreux, he served as chairman and chief executive officer of NeurogesX. From 1978 to 1997, Mr. Palefsky was the chairman, president, chief executive officer and/or director of Collagen Corporation, guiding it from an early startup to a public company. During his tenure at Collagen, he made a number of successful corporate venture investments, including Target Therapeutics (subsequently sold to Boston Scientific). Mr. Palefsky currently serves on the boards of Windy Hill Medical, Avantis Medical Systems, PulmonX, and NovoStent, and previously held board positions with Questcor, Enteric Medical, and Pro-Duct before their initial public offering or acquisition.
About PercSys
PercSys is developing devices that make urologic and endoscopic procedures easier, less traumatic, and more effective therapeutically. The company is developing a series of unique products for endourology/treatment of kidney stones. The company's initial product, the PercSys Accordion(R) Stone Management Device, was introduced to the market in mid-2007, and a second device in the Accordion family was launched in 2008. Together, these two devices have been used successfully in over 800 endoscopic kidney stone treatments to date. For more information about PercSys and the PercSys Accordion Stone Management Device, please visit http://www.percsys.com.
CONTACT: Craig Ball, PercSys Vice President, Marketing, +1-650-493-4200,
ext. 207, Cball@PercSys.com
Web site: http://www.percsys.com/
