New Hope, Pa.-based Orchestra Biomed Inc. scooped up $34 million in a series B-1 preferred stock financing led by Perceive Advisors, RTW Investments and Soleus Capital. The funds will be used to advance development of the company's Backbeat cardiac neuromodulation therapy (CNT) system, to support commitments to Orchestra's strategic global partnership with Tokyo-based Terumo Corp. for the development and marketing of the Virtue sirolimus-eluting balloon (SEB) and to grow the company's product pipeline and pursue future collaborations. Terumo and existing investors from Sternaegis Ventures also participated in the round.
Two years after receiving Medtronic plc's Heartware ventricular assist device (HVAD) via a less-invasive implant procedure, 95% of patients were free from disabling stroke, according to the Dublin-based company. Adverse events, if they did occur, were mostly seen within the first 30 days following implant, with total strokes occurring at only 0.05 events per patient year (EPPY) in years one to two post-implant. Results of the LATERAL clinical trial were presented at the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs 65th annual conference in San Francisco.
Less than a month after securing CE marking for the Mallya smart sensor cap for injection pens, Biocorp SA, of Issoire, France, is in exclusive negotiations with Paris-based Sanofi SA, to deploy the device on Sanofi's integrated diabetes care platform. Final terms of the arrangement are still being hammered out, but it is expected to include an initial payment of €4 million (US$4.5 million) to Biocorp to advance product development and related activities.
Varian Medical Systems Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., continues its recent spending spree, reporting Tuesday that it has signed an agreement to acquire Marlborough, Mass.-based Boston Scientific Corp.'s line of embolic bead products for $90 million. The proposed purchase of the drug-loadable microsphere and bland embolic bead portfolio comes on the heels of Varian's June acquisitions of Austin-based Endocare Inc. and Hangzhou, China-based Alicon, and aims to boost Varian's footprint in the global interventional oncology market.
San Carlos, Calif.-based Natera Inc. has kicked off a prospective nationwide registry study for kidney transplant recipients to look at changes in biopsy usage and clinical outcomes associated with use of its Prospera kidney transplant rejection assay. The Proactive study, which will involve 3,000 kidney transplant patients from the time of surgery, will follow most patients for three years and a subset of high-risk patients for five years. The overarching goal of the study is to improve detection of active rejection and improve long-term patient outcomes with use of physician-prescribed Prospera.
