ReCor is bringing some of that momentum it had in 2022 over into 2023 with the announcement of a new CEO. Lara Barghout is taking the helm of the Palo Alto, CA-based company, which is currently one of the few firms generating strong data that is keeping the dream of fighting hypertension with renal denervation alive.

Barghout brings more than 20 years of experience leading global businesses in the medical device industry. She joins ReCor from Siemens Healthineers, where she was Senior Vice President and Head of Advanced Therapies, successfully leading the image-guided therapy business in North America.

Before her work at Siemens Healthineers, she held several escalating roles at Terumo Cardiovascular, developing a wealth of experience in building high-performance global commercial organizations, leading cultural transformations, and rising to become Senior Vice President, Global Commercial Operations.

“High blood pressure is a leading contributor to cardiovascular disease burden worldwide, resulting in increased patient risk and higher costs to health systems. I look forward to leading our focus to advance uRDN as a treatment for hypertension and the global commercialization of the Paradise uRDN System. We believe our Paradise uRDN technology to be a true game changer in improving hypertension therapy, with the potential to offer a new option for physicians to help improve blood pressure outcomes for their patients on a global scale.”

She succeeds Andrew Weiss, who joined ReCor in 2013 and led ReCor in the development of the Paradise uRDN System from its early clinical trials, to the acquisition of ReCor by Otsuka in 2018, through the RADIANCE trial successes and the recent submission to the FDA.

ReCor is developing Paradise system. Here’s how the technology works. A small incision is made in the groin. A small flexible catheter is inserted and then placed in the artery supplying the kidney.  

Ultrasound energy is delivered to the tissue surrounding the artery for several seconds. The ultrasound energy generates heat to decrease the over-activity of the nerves leading to the kidney. Both kidneys are treated. Following treatment, the device is removed.

ReCor is a bright spot in renal denervation to treat uncontrollable hypertension after other companies in the space have either folded on the idea or haven’t had strong data to support therapies.

Medtronic was one of these companies, announcing in November at a Late-Breaking Session of the American Heart Association that it had unsatisfactory six-month primary endpoint results from its Symplicity Spyral Renal Denervation (RDN) trial. This was the second time the company tried and failed to meet its primary endpoint of a change in blood pressure in patients after six months following its RDN procedure. 

ReCor, however, presented strong data at the American Heart Association that was favorable. The ReCor’s RADIANCE Pooled Analysis includes data from more than 500 patients randomized in the three studies from ReCor’s RADIANCE Global Program: RADIANCE-HTN TRIO, which studied patients with resistant hypertension, and RADIANCE-HTN SOLO and RADIANCE II, which studied patients with mild-moderate hypertension.

The combined dataset showed an overall reduction in daytime ambulatory systolic BP in the uRDN group of -8.5 mmHg (p<0.0001) with a difference between treatment and sham at two months of -5.9 mmHg (p<0.0001), favoring uRDN. Blood pressure results were similarly positive in the 24-hour, nighttime, home, and office measures. A favorable safety profile was consistently observed following uRDN treatment across the studies.