A heart-saving medical device the size of a
grain of rice was just backed by a $60 million investment led by two Australian
VC firms
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A new medical tech device the size
of “a large grain of rice” that keeps heart failure patients alive has
completed a $60 million capital raising round led by two Australian investment
firms.
Conventional CRT devices require
wires to transmit pulses to the heart, but this means it cannot get inside the
left ventricle due to the risk of clots that that can cause heart attacks and
strokes. Californian medical technology startup EBR Systems claims its small
WiSE-CRT implanted device gets those signals inside the left ventricle without
wires.
Sydney venture capital firms Brandon
Capital and MH Carnegie & Co led the capital raising round.
“I’m convinced that wireless pacing
represents the future of cardiac pacing and that EBR Systems is at the
forefront of this technological advancement,” said MH Carnegie & Co partner
Trevor Moody.
“As a former pacemaker engineer and
long-time medical device investor, I am excited to back EBR Systems and its
WiSE Technology for wireless endocardial stimulation.”
The new money will be used to
perform a 350-patient clinical trial for the WiSE-CRT device in Australia, US
and Europe. The trial results are hoped to lead to an approval from the US Food
and Drug Administration, which is a mandatory hurdle before commercialisation
in that country.
EBR
Systems’ device. (Source: supplied)
Brandon Capital managing director Dr
Chris Nave, who is also the chief executive of the company’s Medical Research
Commercialisation Funds (MRCF), said the difference in quality of life for
heart failure patients that have had successful CRT treatment and those that
have not are “like night and day”.
“Those that don’t respond to
treatment can be so short of breath that they have difficulty completing even
the most simple of daily tasks. Given the highly encouraging clinical data the
company has generated to date across a range of patient studies, including
those patients that have previously failed to respond to conventional,
wire-based CRT therapy, we believe EBR’s WiSE CRT system offers real hope to
these patients.”
Australia will provide 100 patients
to the clinical trial, which will be conducted in 10 hospitals around the
country. Six of those hospitals are research members of the MRCF, which
Brandon’s contribution came from.
Professor of Cardiology at the Royal
Adelaide Hospital, Dr Prash Sanders, will lead the trial in Australia, and will
also sit on the steering committee for the global program.
Dr Nave said that Australia’s
participation is a testimony to the nation’s reputation in medical research.
“Australia is extremely attractive
for clinical trials because of its excellent research infrastructure, top-tier
hospitals and leading clinicians,” he said.
“Government initiatives such as the
R&D Tax Rebate, add significantly to Australia’s attractiveness as a
destination for developing products like the WiSE Technology; creating jobs,
growing our local industry and ultimately improving patients’ lives.”
Brandon Capital’s MRCF has $480
million under management and is claimed to be the largest “life science
investment fund” in Australia and New Zealand. The fund has involvement from
superannuation funds, Australia and New Zealand governments, state governments
and more than 50 medical organisations.
MH Carnegie & Co is a private
equity and venture capital firm based in Paddington in eastern Sydney, with
more than $500 million under management to focus on “medical device
opportunities”.
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