ATS Medical

ATS Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATSI), based in Plymouth, Minnesota, is a developer and manufacturer of products and services for the cardiac surgery market. The publicly traded company was founded in 1987 under the name Helix BioCore by Manny Villafana, a serial entrepreneur in the cardiology/cardiac surgery industry. After completing an initial public offering as Helix BioCore in 1990 and experiencing a lack of success in the biotech mammalian cell culture business, in 1991 the company changed its name to ATS Medical and disbanded the biotech business. The company’s new goal became to advance the performance standard of artificial heart valves, specifically mechanical heart valves. The result was incorporating a pivot mechanism consisting of protruding spheres on which the valve’s leaflets pivot to open and close. The open pivot was intended to eliminate the cavity created by the pivot of all other bileaflet valves and to improve blood flow through the valve, minimizing potential for blood clot formation. The ATS Open Pivot Heart Valve was first sold in international markets in 1992 and subsequently granted FDA clearance to sell in the United States in 2000. To date more than 140,000 valves have been implanted worldwide.

Under the leadership of Michael D. Dale, the company has become a more diversified cardiac surgery business through the offering of new technologies and services to cardiac surgeons in three categories: • Heart Valve Therapy – artificial heart valves (mechanical heart valves and biological heart valves) for aortic valve replacement and mitral valve replacement, and heart valve repair products • Surgical Cryoablation – cryoablation for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmia • Surgical Tools and Accessories – surgical tools for the cardiac surgeon in day-to-day surgical procedures including robotic surgery tools and products to meet specific needs during robotic surgery.