A Medical Device Daily

Atritech (Minneapolis), a clinical stage medical device company, reported that it has completed a $22 million round of financing. SightLine Healthcare Vintage Fund led the round along with substantial commitments from the existing investors including Prism Venture Partners, the lead from the last round. In the past 18 months, the company said it has raised about $45 million in capital.

With this new funding, the company said it will complete the enrollment phase of its PROTECT AF clinical trial along with the preparation and submission of clinical results to the FDA. The PROTECT AF clinical trial is evaluating the Watchman device vs. the current standard of care, Coumadin, in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). The PROTECT AF clinical trial is being conducted in 60 sites across the U.S. and Europe and is in the final stage of enrollment with about 600 patients enrolled, of which 300 patients have been enrolled since the beginning of the year.

The Watchman is designed to keep harmful-sized blood clots from entering a patient’s blood stream, potentially causing a stroke. Patients with AF are at a significantly greater risk of having a stroke. Typically these patients require blood thinning medications to prevent these clots from forming in the heart. Current blood thinning medications require frequent monitoring and have diet and other drug interactions. Moreover, there are many serious complications including severe bleeding.

This financing follows the company’s acquisition in June of intellectual property from ev3 (Plymouth, Minnesota) relating to closure devices within the left atrial appendage. The company said this acquisition of more than 60 patents together with the company’s broad patent portfolio and clinical trial success establishes it as a leader in the left atrial appendage closure market.

Major investors in Atritech include SplitRock Partners, Prism Venture Partners, Tullis-Dickerson Partners, the Vector Group, Thoma Cressey Funds, SightLine Funds and Affinity Capital.

UltraShape (Yokneam, Israel), a global developer of non-invasive body contouring, reported it has completed a $15.1 million round of funding.

The financing was led by new investor Meritech Capital Partners, with participation from both of its previous institutional investors, Israel Seed Partners and Polaris Venture Partners.

“The infusion of capital will enable UltraShape to accelerate global market adoption to meet the growing demands for our body contouring solution,” said Rodger Stewart, UltraShape president/CEO.

UltraShape, founded in 2000, said it is redefining aesthetic medicine by developing non-invasive technologies for body contouring. The UltraShape non-invasive body contouring technology is based on focused ultrasound that targets and selectively disrupts fat cells without affecting surrounding structures.

In other financing news: NeoMatrix (Irvine, California), developer of the HALO breast pap test, an automatic, noninvasive test designed to identify breast cancer risk, reported that it has closed a Series C round of equity financing for an undisclosed sum.

The company said the financing will enable an expanded market release of the HALO system, which is designed to test asymptomatic women for the presence of atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH), a known biomarker that can be a precursor to breast cancer. ADH is often found in the breast years earlier than a lesion might be found on a mammogram or a self exam, facilitating early follow-up and treatment or chemoprevention measures.

“This fundraising has enabled us to hire our first sales representatives, expand our marketing team and to develop the infrastructure and marketing programs required to drive awareness and adoption of the HALO system,” said Paul Fitzpatrick, CEO of NeoMatrix. It also allowed us to convert or retire 100% of the debt previously used to finance the research and development of both the HALO system and its broad patent protection.