Biography
Krishnan Suthanthiran
After traveling to Ottawa from his native India,
Krishnan Suthanthiran, MEng/71, went on to improve
the lives of thousands of cardiology patients.
The graduate of Carleton’s Department of Mechanical
and Aerospace Engineering is now the president and
founder of Virginia-based Best Medical International,
a successful biomedical firm that develops radiation
therapy products.
According to IANS report, back in 1963, when Krishnan
Suthanthiran was minding his father's grocery store
in Tamil Nadu, he was asked why he didn't go to college
even after topping in his high school.
A friend replied: "His father is too poor to
send him (to college)."
Suthanthiran - today a millionaire busy transforming
a ghost town he bought for $5.7 million - admitted
he had found the reply "a bit insulting".
The father of one of his friends gave him Rs.300
and sent him to meet the college principal. Later,
Suthanthiran, who left India when he was 15, started
scholarships in the name of the man who helped him
and helped to build a school in his hometown.
After he got admission in Carleton University in
Canada, he washed dishes to make ends meet. He finally
got a research assistantship and in the 1970s moved
to the US, looking for a job.
In the mid-1990s, his company developed a revolutionary
treatment for patients with blocked peripheral and
coronary arteries. The latter involves the narrowing
of arteries that supply blood to the heart –
a condition that increases the risk of heart attack
and sudden death.
Stents, which resemble tiny springs, can be surgically
inserted into the problem artery to solve blood-flow
issues for the majority of patients, explains Suthanthiran.
However, a number of other patients treated with stents
return to their cardiologists with reoccurring problems.
So Best Medical developed a catheter with radioactive
pellets to treat these stent patients. The new device,
which provides radiation treatment to those patients
who already have stents, cut reoccurring blockages
in half. From 1995 to 2000, Best Medical’s pioneering
research was carried out with a medical team from
the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, Calif. Soon after,
a major company licensed Best’s technology for
worldwide distribution.
Suthanthiran founded his company in 1977. Almost
30 years later, the 55-year-old has plans to expand
his enterprise. Already, he has set up Best Medical
Europe, with future plans for Asian and Latin American
locations.
“We must have global resources so that we can
better compete by manufacturing and marketing our
products in other parts of the world,” he says.
Carleton’s Richard Kind, engineering professor
emeritus and Suthanthiran’s thesis supervisor
remembers his former student to be a quiet but determined
individual.
“Krishnan realized that coming to North America
and to Carleton opened up a lot of doors for him,
but he’s the one who made it all happen.”
Suthanthiran recognizes the high cost of education
can be a big hurdle for many people. And even though
education is highly subsidized, has always felt the
government alone cannot make university more affordable.
“There has to be a contribution from alumni,
private citizens, entrepreneurs and industry,”
he said, adding that, over the last several years,
he has provided more than $2 million U.S. for research
grants and endowment funds to hospitals and universities.
In the case of Carleton, he established the Krishnan
Suthanthiran and Richard Kind Scholarship in Mechanical/Aerospace
Engineering. The first presentation of this scholarship
– worth $2,000 for each recipient – was
made last fall. The entrepreneur has also provided
funding for some of the department’s equipment.
