Medtronic Inc., a Minnesota-based medical device maker with a heart valve plant in Santa Ana, said Monday that it led a $20 million venture capital investment in Arbor Surgical Technologies Inc. of Irvine.
Medtronic said it has acquired a minority stake in Arbor through the investment.
Arbor makes heart valves from cow tissue as well as surgical instruments to implant them.
Arbor’s approach differs from companies that are developing heart valves requiring less-invasive insertion via a catheter. Arbor valves are designed to work with catheters or in open-heart surgery.
Medtronic also said it will make, market and distribute Arbor’s cow tissue heart valves.
Arbor is going to retain exclusive rights to market other technologies used to help surgeons perform heart valve procedures.
Thomas Fogarty, a Portola Valley doctor who holds more than 100 medical device patents, and heart valve designer Ernie Lane started Arbor in 2002. In the late 1960s, Fogarty worked with Warren Hancock, a seminal figure in the Orange County medical device industry, to invent the first replacement heart valve made from pig tissue.
Steve Bacich, Arbor’s chief executive, worked at Edwards Lifesciences Corp. of Irvine when it was the cardiovascular unit of Baxter International Inc.
