Cardica Provides Update on MicroCutter Program; Says XPRESS 30 Did not Perform Satisfactorily

Cardica, Inc. CRDC today announced the suspension of enrollment in its European clinical trial of the MicroCutter XPRESS™ 30 due to a small subset of deployments where the XPRESS 30 did not perform satisfactorily in thicker tissue. The company has isolated the underlying cause, which requires modifications to the product. There have been no serious adverse events and all patients have had an uneventful postoperative course as it relates to the use of the MicroCutter. Cardica has reprioritized the development activities of its MicroCutter product line to emphasize the development of the MicroCutter XCHANGE™ 30. In addition to the acceleration of development for the XCHANGE 30, the company intends to pursue modifications of the XPRESS™ 30 concurrently. Cardica plans to continue the trial with the XCHANGE™ 30, a cartridge-based microcutter device with a 5 millimeter shaft diameter, by the end of the first calendar quarter of 2012, once this device completes development and design verification, and Cardica is able to apply Conformite Europeenne (CE) Mark to the device.