Full Press Release Details
List of Participants
Hello, and welcome to today's conference call to discuss the
merger between TriSalus Life Sciences and MedTech Acquisition Corp.
At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. There will
be no questions and answer session following the formal presentation today. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
Please note that this presentation, as well as the Form 8-K that includes
definitive documentation with respect to the proposed merger can be found at the website of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
The discussion today may contain forward-looking statements including,
but not limited to, with regard to TriSalus Life Sciences, Inc.'s (referred to as "TriSalus") and MedTech Acquisition
Corp. (referred to as "MedTech") and their respective expectations or predictions of future financial, business performance
or conditions. Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, and they are not guarantees
of performance. Forward-looking statements include the parties' expectations regarding TPT payment approval and the ability to satisfy
each of the conditions in the convertible notes term sheet and to finalize and execute definitive documentation with the convertible notes
investor. You should not put undue reliance on these statements. You should understand that such forward-looking statements involve risks
and uncertainties, including the items discussed under the risk factors listed in the presentation. Such factors may be updated from time
to time in MedTech's filings with the SEC, which are available on the SEC website, and they may cause actual results or performance
to differ materially from those indicated by such statements. MedTech and TriSalus are under no obligation, and expressly disclaim any
obligation, to update, alter or otherwise revise any forward-looking statement whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise, except as required by law.
Please refer to the disclaimers found in the investor presentation
for additional information.
And now I'll turn the call over to Chris Dewey, CEO of MedTech.
Chris Dewey, Chief Executive Officer, MedTech Acquisition Corporation
Good morning, my name is Chris Dewey, CEO of MedTech, and I am excited
to tell you about our planned merger with TriSalus Life Sciences, a privately held oncology therapeutics company integrating immunotherapy
with disruptive delivery technology to transform the treatment paradigm for patients with liver and pancreatic tumors.
With me today are Mary Szela, CEO of TriSalus, who will share more
about the TriSalus platform and opportunity, Steven Katz, Chief Medical Officer, who will discuss the significant need for effective treatments
for patients with liver and pancreatic cancer and the shortcomings of the current standards of care, along with Sean Murphy, Chief Financial
Officer, who will discuss TriSalus' growth potential and go over the transaction details.
was established with a focus on the healthcare sector, targeting high-growth companies that are poised to capitalize on the tremendous
opportunities that exist when using technology to solve some of healthcare's biggest challenges. Our team has worked together
for the better part of 20 years. We bring deep experience to this merger. Our group has been responsible for some of the biggest
successes in the medical device space, including Intuitive Surgical, Mako Surgical Corp, ShockWave Medical, Procept BioRobotics and Insightec,
to name a few, where we were founders, operators, board members, involved in all aspects of creating value for ourselves and our partners. The
MedTech team's collective years of operating experience in this space is a key factor in this transaction. We look forward to leveraging
our deep sector knowledge and industry connections to increase shareholder value following the close, as board members and senior advisors.
As we launched our SPAC, we had a few criteria for selecting the optimal
target. We were looking for a company with a differentiated technology that was at a critical inflection point, at which we could use
our expertise to accelerate commercialization and foster growth. TriSalus fits the bill. Its proprietary platform approach addresses immune
dysfunction in liver and pancreatic tumors in a way no other standard of care on the market today can - by combining immunotherapy
drugs with disruptive drug delivery technology.
The value we see is not limited to TriSalus' fast-growing medtech
business, which has a commercial-stage, high margin, and FDA cleared drug delivery technology. Its promising immunotherapeutic offers
potential transformational upside, with multiple potential value-creating opportunities over the next 18 months. Following the close of
the transaction, the Company is expected to be fully funded, which will position it for key data read-outs for TriSalus' device
and immunotherapy platform in late 2024.
One of the most compelling characteristics of TriSalus is their impressive
team, who collectively have a powerful combination of proven clinical, strategic and commercial capabilities. It is led by Mary Szela,
who has 35 years of experience in both the commercial and clinical arenas. Her accomplishments building billion-dollar businesses, turning
around faltering businesses, igniting growth in stagnant businesses and devising innovative, differentiated strategies for undistinguished
products - reflects a remarkable record.
After evaluating many different companies in the medical device space,
the MedTech team and I could not be more pleased to reach this agreement with TriSalus. We believe this transaction represents a compelling
value opportunity for all MedTech shareholders - and for the hundreds of thousands of patients around the world battling these life-threatening
With that, I'm pleased to turn it over to Mary, CEO of TriSalus.
Mary Szela, Chief Executive Officer, TriSalus
Thank you, Chris, and good morning.
As Chris mentioned, I have nearly 35 years of biopharma experience,
including 25 years at Abbott where I oversaw the company's $8 billion U.S. pharmaceutical business, the profit driver of the company,
and led the U.S. launch of many of Humira's indications - and was instrumental in transforming Humira into one of the largest
and most successful immunotherapies globally. At Abbott I worked closely with Sean, our Chief Financial Officer, who has more than 40
years of experience in healthcare operations and business development, encompassing pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and diagnostics.
For the first 10 years of my career, I had the opportunity to report to Sean and to be mentored and developed under his superb leadership.
Sean's leadership as Head of Corporate M&A and Business Development, during his more than 30 years with Abbott, played a fundamental
role in strategic and operational investments driving the most pivotal and transformational acquisitions at the company, and creating
the foundation for the company it is today.
Sean is one member of our talented team, who I am so fortunate to work
with every day. It gives me great fulfillment to know we are doing meaningful work in helping to advance TriSalus' important mission
of improving the treatment paradigm for patients with liver and pancreatic cancers around the world. As a breast cancer survivor and someone
who has lost my sister to breast cancer liver metastases, I am personally committed to finding better solutions for patients who suffer
from liver and pancreatic tumors.
TriSalus was founded in 2018 to develop and commercialize an innovative
approach for the treatment of these difficult-to-treat liver and pancreatic tumors. Our vision is based on nearly 20 years of work by
Dr. Steven Katz, now Chief Medical Officer of TriSalus, and who also joins me today. Before joining TriSalus, Dr. Katz was a full-time
academic surgical oncologist and developed a reputation as a leader in solid tumor immunotherapy, cellular therapeutics, cancer biology,
liver immunology and execution of immunotherapy clinical trials. His clinical expertise is in the surgical therapy and multi-disciplinary
management of liver tumors, pancreas tumors, sarcoma and melanoma. And he has received research grants from numerous societies, the National
Institute of Health, and the Department of Defense, in addition to multiple industry partners.
Dr. Katz has operated on thousands of cancer patients and studied liver
immune biology for nearly two decades. As a surgeon, he sees daily the liver tumor architecture and how blood vessels within the tumor
are compressed, inhibiting current therapeutics from getting to the site of disease. He began searching for an advanced method of drug
delivery to overcome these physical barriers. And after years of clinical work and research, he wanted to find a better way to help patients
with liver and pancreatic tumors benefit from immunotherapy.
When Dr. Katz joined TriSalus, our company had been developing and
commercializing an innovative new device technology and approach to administer therapeutics called Pressure-Enabled Drug Delivery, or
PEDD for short. Dr. Katz saw its potential for use in liver tumors, and he led a phase 1 clinical trial using our PEDD approach to administer
cell therapy. The clinical results were promising. In over 17,000 procedures to date, PEDD has been used to improve intravascular therapeutic
delivery by modulating pressure and flow to enhance local drug concentrations in tumors.
Our TriNav Infusion System, launched in 2020, leverages this PEDD technology
to help overcome the infusion barriers that limit therapeutic uptake in solid tumors, including in hepatocellular carcinoma and liver
metastases. We achieved $8.4 million in sales of TriNav in 2021, and, subject to congressional approval of an extension of our TPT status,
believe we have significant platform expansion opportunities with partners to advance checkpoint inhibitors on immunotherapy assets, like
we have done with SD-101. PEDD has demonstrated the ability to deliver larger therapeutic loads into high pressure tumors, while limiting
off-target toxicity, and we see this as a critical path to drive growth.
PEDD is clearly a game-changer, first-of-its-kind technology, and the
traction that we have achieved to date with key customers is a reflection of its novelty and efficacy. In addition to having prominent
customers across the U.S., key opinion leaders they all have championed TriNav and PEDD technology as well as renowned cancer research
centers and are running studies to further test their effectiveness. In fact, to date, PEDD has been validated in peer-reviewed studies
at multiple clinical sites and as I mentioned, performed in over 17,000 cases to date. Ongoing and soon-to-be-open clinical studies at