Good money, diversified.

• Author: WOELFLEIN, MIKE
• Position: Ischemia Technologies - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

PETER CROSBY SPENT MUCH OF 2000 IN PURSUIT OF VENTURE CAPITAL.

Crosby is the president and CEO of Ischemia Technologies, a company developing a testing device that recognizes ischemia, or insufficient blood-flow to the heart, a telltale sign of a heart attack. It would be used to rule out heart attacks in patients with chest pains.

"Raising any money in 2000 was extraordinarily difficult," Crosby said. "For the first half of the year, people said, 'If you're not a dot-com, I'm not interested.' And in the second -- even the first months of this year -- they said, 'I just lost all my money on dot-coms and I'm not going to invest in anything right now."

Nonetheless, Ischemia closed its $10.1 million second round in December.

According to the company, 5.3 million people come to U.S. emergency rooms due to chest pains. Of those, 3.2 million are admitted to the hospital for testing and costly work-ups. Two-thirds of the admitted patients are determined to be non-ischemic, meaning that they were not having a heart attack. Of the 2. million who are not admitted, 150,000 are found to be ischemic after leaving the hospital, and one-third of that group ends up dying of heart attacks.

Ischemia Technologies' device could, with the all-important approval of the Food and Drug Administration, quickly determine whether a patient is ischemic or not. More importantly, it could do so relatively cheaply, and help ensure that only the right people are admitted.

The device is now in clinical trials, with plans for submission to the FDA for pre-market approval by the end of the year. The goal is to have a full-scale market launch sometime in 2002 in the U.S. and Japan, and by the end of this year in Europe.

After their second round, Crosby and company were going to wait on raising more capital.

"We weren't looking for money," he said. "I know that sounds bizarre, but we...