The Memo: iCHOR Vascular Simply Taking a Proven Surgical Fogarty Sweep Into the Endovascular Labs

Under the leadership of Co-Founder and CEO Tim Blair, iCHOR Vascular is advancing a new approach to treating peripheral vascular occlusions by converting one of surgery’s most proven techniques into a simple, minimally invasive endovascular procedure. Founded to address shortcomings in clot removal, the company’s iSWEEP platform modernizes the classic Fogarty balloon sweep, delivering rapid vessel clearance without thrombolytic drugs, complex surgery, blood loss, vessel damage, or capital equipment.

Origin Story

iCHOR Vascular was founded by practicing Vascular Interventional Radiologist Dr. Troy Long and industry veteran Tim Blair, sparked by a clear realization.

“The iCHOR aha moment came from our preclinical experiences with various thrombectomy technologies in their early development stages,” Blair explained. “Whether it was another aspiration technology, another Archimedes screw, another maceration contraption, or another metal scrapping tool, nobody was superior to clot removal and vessel integrity compared to the surgical Fogarty predicate device.”

That insight became the foundation of the company’s mission: to take what has worked for decades in open thrombectomy and translate it into a streamlined endovascular solution.

“We applied our preclinical experiences to essentially create an endovascular balloon sweeping system that can be applied across a wide range of clot morphology and anatomy with a single system,” Blair said.

The founders brought complementary expertise. As a practicing Vascular Interventional Radiologist, Dr. Long brings decades of training and experience with clot removal. Blair, meanwhile, brings more than three decades of experience in peripheral vascular disease from the sales and marketing perspective, with added preclinical and regulatory depth in early-stage vascular technologies.

The company began in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and has since formed as a Delaware C-Corp. Since its founding, iCHOR has secured early pre-seed, seed, and Series A funding, along with three FDA 510(k) clearances supported by early real-world clinical experience.

The Current Landscape

Peripheral vascular occlusions remain a major and costly challenge across peripheral venous disease, peripheral artery disease, and dialysis access. Despite innovation in mechanical thrombectomy, the standard of care has long been dominated by drug-based and surgical approaches.

“Today’s market is still dominated by lytic therapy followed by surgical approaches,” Blair said.

While newer mechanical technologies have shifted the field away from thrombolytics, most device mechanisms were originally designed for other indications and often present with trade-offs because they weren’t designed for the peripheral system.

“Every mechanism of action to date was borrowed from stroke or pulmonary embolism,” he explained. “Peripheral issues are different.”

That difference in anatomy and clot morphology demands tools specifically built for the peripheral vasculature.

iCHOR’s approach is deliberate: rather than reinventing clot removal with increasingly complex systems, the company has focused on adapting the most validated predicate in the field while addressing the blood loss and vessel damage shortcomings.

“We have been using the Fogarty balloon successfully for 60+ years,” Blair said. “iCHOR Vascular created an endovascular option for physicians that is simple, proven, and highly economical.”

The implications are significant for hospitals and increasingly, ambulatory environments where economics and simplicity matter more than ever.

Inside the Innovation

At the core of iCHOR Vascular’s platform is the iSWEEP System, a catheter-based kit designed to replicate the Fogarty balloon sweep in a minimally invasive procedure.

This blog is originally published here: https://www.lifesciencemarketresearch.com/insights/the-memo-ichor-vascular-simply-taking-a-proven-surgical-fogarty-sweep-into-the-endovascular-labs