US-based medical device firm Cardialen has raised new funds in a series B investment round for the development of an implantable defibrillation therapy to gently restore normal heart rhythm.
The $17m financing round was led by RiverVest Venture Partners. Qiming Venture Partners, HBM Healthcare Investments and Cultivation Capital also joined the round.
Cardialen plans to use the new funds to further develop its clinical unpinning termination (UPT) therapy programmed with additional human testing. It also seeks to support the development of an implant.
Cardialen president and CEO Jeff Peters said: “This round of financing gives Cardialen the capital to establish acute safety of UPT therapy for the treatment of various tachyarrhythmias.”
The UPT therapy is designed to deliver a series of low-energy electrical pulses in order to restore abnormal heart rates to normal.
This treatment option is expected to provide a low-energy alternative for existing high-energy defibrillators via more tolerable and less debilitating therapy for heart rhythm disorders.
In early human feasibility studies, the Cardialen UPT therapy is said to have demonstrated the potential for successful treatment of cardiac arrhythmias with substantially lower energy therapy.
Cardialen founder and scientific advisor Igor Efimov said: “Today’s implantable defibrillator therapy generates painful high-energy shocks that are associated with undesirable mortality that is expected to be reduced for patients receiving fewer shocks or a low-energy therapy.
“Our goal with UPT therapy is to reduce the negative effects of high-energy therapy and provide a better quality of life for patients.”
Based on the initial data, the implantable heart therapy is expected to cater to both current and potential defibrillator market.
