Thermal Therapeutic Systems Inc., based in suburban Pittsburgh, has received FDA clearance to market a perfusion system to heat and circulate warm sterile fluids used in medical procedures.

CEO Raymond Vennare said the biotech firm’s next step will be a three-year contract for the product, dubbed Veratherm, with a major hospital system system. The portable, lightweright device is used in chemotherapy, open heart surgery and transplantation.

"We’re actively pursuing contracts with perfusion practices," Vennare says. "We’re doing a controlled launch at centers of excellence hospitals, not only in Pittsburgh but nationally.”

Thermal Therapeutics was founded in 2006. In 2009, the firm received $2.75 million in venture capital from Bethlehem’s Originate Ventures.  Thermal Therapeutics had previously received $600,000 in seed funding from the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse and Innovation Works.

The start-up has an experienced Pittsburgh management team. The firm is Vennare’s fifth start-up, his third in biotechnology. His partners are Pete DeComo, chairman and CEO of ALung, another local biotech success story, and Mary Del Brady, former President and CEO of RedPath Integrated Pathology, Inc., a genomics based diagnostic company.

Source: Raymond Vennare, Thermal Therapeutics
Writer: Chris O'Toole