BiVacor announced today that it appointed Axonics CEO Raymond W. Cohen as the new chair of its board of directors.
Cohen serves as CEO and as a member of the board at Axonics, which develops sacral neuromodulation technologies. He originally founded Axonics in 2013 and took the Irvine, California-based company public in October 2018. The long-time executive has more than 40 years of experience in the life sciences industry.
In addition to his roles at Axonics, Cohen serves as an independent director of SoniVie. The clinical-stage, venture-backed company develops denervation technology for uncontrolled hypertension.
Cohen now heads up the board at BiVacor, a company making a total artificial heart (BTAH). BiVacor received FDA investigational device exemption (IDE) for the artificial heart last month. It’s now set to conduct a first-in-human clinical feasibility study evaluating the use of the system as a bridge to heart transplant in subjects with biventricular heart failure.
BiVacor expects to initially enroll three patients at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston, beginning in the first half of 2024.
“A total artificial heart is designed to take over the complete function of a patient’s failing heart and represents an advanced treatment option for people waiting on a heart transplant or those who do not qualify for certain reasons,” Cohen said. “The work done by BiVacor over the past 15 years to develop the TAH system is impressive. I’ve spent much of my career in cardiology and consider it a privilege to join Dr. Timms and Dr. Cohn on this amazing journey.”