Copyright The Boston Globe
Now that Amplitude Vascular Systems is ready to start selling its medical device, the company needs a place to make it. That’s a big reason why AVS has left its Seaport digs for a much larger home in Waltham. AVS just opened its new headquarters at 180 Third Avenue, where it leases nearly 40,000 square feet from BXP, in the landlord’s CityPoint development. Board chairman Mark Toland said AVS is eyeing a mid-2026 commercialization date, based on his expectations for Food and Drug Administration approval, and plans to make the Waltham space home for its manufacturing, research, and administration. The company’s Pulse IVL System, born out of a University of Michigan incubator, is used to treat calcified arteries by emitting pressure waves through a catheter into the clogged blood vessels, to restore proper blood flow. (Its biggest rival is Johnson & Johnson’s Shockwave device, which is already on the market.) Toland says about 30 people work at AVS now in Waltham, primarily engineers, but that number will more than triple to 100 by the end of next year. For Toland, an executive with AVS investor BioStar Capital, Waltham is familiar ground. He led Corindus, a med-tech robotics company that had been based in Waltham, before it was acquired by Siemens Healthineers in 2019. Toland likes the location because it’s close to where many med-tech veterans live in the suburbs, while also relatively accessible to younger workers who prefer living in or around Boston. Advertisement AVS also represents a Boston Scientific reunion of sorts. Toland had worked for the Marlborough-based med-tech giant for nearly 20 years, and Hank Kucheman, another BioStar executive working with AVS, is a former Boston Scientific chief executive. AVS chief operating officer Sean Gilligan and vice president Angie Volk are also former longtime Boston Scientific executives. “We’re really excited to grow these companies in the Boston metro area,” Toland said. “The rich talent pool is something you can’t get everywhere.” This is an installment of our weekly Bold Types column about the movers and shakers on Boston’s business scene. Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him @jonchesto.
