SonaCare Medical Expands Management Team With Chief Financial Officer

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 4, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- SonaCare Medical, a leader in minimally invasive high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) technology, announced today that Vincent (Vinny) Prajka has joined as Chief Financial Officer. 

Prajka brings nearly 15 years of investment banking and corporate finance and strategy experience to the SonaCare Medical management team. Prajka will be responsible for the company's finance, legal and administrative functions.

"Vinny Prajka brings significant financial, operational and administrative capabilities to the SonaCare Medical executive team," said Mike Klein, CEO for SonaCare Medical. "Building on the tremendous interest and excitement generated around the launch of the Sonatherm^® HIFU Surgical Ablation System at the AUA and the growing interest from U.S. urologists to add HIFU to their practices, we are pleased to add Vinny's financial management and capital markets expertise as we move closer to the introduction of our HIFU technology platform in the United States." 

Prior to joining SonaCare Medical, Prajka served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Blackbaud's Enterprise Customer Business Unit and Target Analytics Business Unit where he had financial leadership over more than $200 million in annual revenue.  During his tenure at Blackbaud, a publically traded software company, he also ran the Corporate Development and Strategy group, where he was responsible for the company's M&A strategy, divestitures, minority investments and distribution partnerships.

Previously Prajka spent more than eight years in investment banking, most recently as a Principal with Piper Jaffray, leading Piper Jaffray's Healthcare Private Placement efforts, primarily focused on the late stage private financings for some of the most innovative clinical and commercialization stage medical technology companies in the United States.  In total, he has completed more than 40 M&A and financing transactions representing more than $1 billion of value in a variety of industries as both agent and principal.  He received a BS in Economics from Binghamton University and MBA summa cum laude from the University of Notre Dame.  

"We are very pleased to have Vinny Prajka join as SonaCare Medical CFO.  As the company evolves from a service company and introduces and expands its line of minimally invasive ablative technology to the U.S. marketplace, hiring a CFO was an important component of appropriately supporting our commercialization effort.  I strongly believe that Vinny's addition further solidifies SonaCare Medical's infrastructure while adding capital markets and transactional expertise to an already very strong team," said Zubeen Shroff, SonaCare Medical director and managing partner of Galen Partners of Stamford, CT.

"I am excited to join SonaCare Medical.  The company is at an inflection point as it transitions to a medical device business and grows commercial revenue and operations in the U.S.  The potential impact of SonaCare Medical's minimally invasive HIFU technology platform to improve patient outcomes with fewer side effects is tremendous as the company has the opportunity to expand quickly into new indications.  The global market for ultrasound products is greater than $6 billion annually and SonaCare's unique application of image guided and ablative technologies have the potential to expand that market considerably.  I look forward to assisting the company to scale to meet this opportunity," said Vinny Prajka.

SonaCare Medical's vision is to develop HIFU surgical ablation systems for a wide range of urological indications, in addition to prostate cancer, that allow for tissue targeting techniques. Sonatherm, like Sonablate^® 500, is powered by the unique T³ Technology, which allows physicians to: target specific tissue using integrated ultrasound imaging and sophisticated planning tools, treat targeted tissue with pinpoint accuracy while sparing untargeted tissue; and track procedure results using real-time ultrasound imaging along with advanced tissue change monitoring software.

About SonaCare Medical
SonaCare Medical, a privately held, venture-backed healthcare company is a world leader in minimally-invasive high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) technologies. SonaCare Medical is committed to developing technologies for urological indications that offer precise and innovative procedures that can control cancer and reduce potential quality of life altering side effects. SonaCare Medical, with its subsidiary Focus Surgery, Inc., designs and manufactures high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) medical devices, including the following: Sonablate^® 450 which is investigational in the U.S. and being studied in a pivotal FDA clinical trial as a possible treatment for recurrent prostate cancer in patients treated previously with external beam radiation therapy; Sonablate^® 500 which has CE Marking and is, or has been, approved for use to treat prostate cancer in more than 30 countries outside the U.S.; and Sonatherm^® laparoscopic HIFU surgical ablation system which is 510(k) cleared in the U.S. The FDA has made no decision as to the safety or efficacy of Sonablate^® 450 or 500. In the event Sonablate^® 450 is approved by the FDA for use in the U.S., there is no assurance that instructions for use or the specifications of the device will be the same for treatment approved or authorized in other countries outside of the U.S. SonaCare Medical was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Charlotte, N.C. www.SonaCareMedical.com

SOURCE SonaCare Medical