Shockwave Medical has announced US$40m in funding, co-led by returning investor Sofinnova Partners and new investor Venrock, with the participation of RA Capital, Deerfield, Sectoral Asset Management, Ally Bridge Group, and two undisclosed large-cap strategic investors.
Proceeds from the financing will be used for development of the company’s Lithoplasty balloon catheters in peripheral, coronary and aortic valve applications.
The company recently reported six-month follow-up results from the DISRUPT PAD trial, a 35-patient study of patients with calcified vascular stenosis of the superficial femoral artery (SFA) and popliteal artery treated with the Lithoplasty system. Data reported at the 37th Annual Charing Cross 2015 Symposium in London (28 April–1 May, London, UK) demonstrate safe and effective dilatation of calcified stenosis with no acute failures, favourable residual stenosis, no major device-related adverse events and no need for stent placement. Six-month durability was excellent with no need for re-treatment and patency by duplex ultrasound of 83%.
Shockwave Medical chief executive officer and co-founder Daniel Hawkins said, “We believe the Lithoplasty system is uniquely suited to address substantial unmet needs in the treatment of patients with peripheral, coronary and aortic valve disease using a balloon-based approach that is inherently familiar to physicians. Our returning and new investors provide us the depth of resources and breadth of support needed to achieve our goal of changing the paradigm in the treatment of advanced cardiovascular disease.”
“We were very impressed with the level of interest and the quality of the investor group that Shockwave was able to bring into this new funding round, with blue-chip financial investors as well as two major corporate investors,” said Antoine Papiernik, managing partner of Sofinnova Partners. ”This is a tribute to the strength of the Lithoplasty technology as well as to the work that management has done to develop it to this stage.”
“Shockwave has the potential to significantly improve the treatment of advanced cardiovascular disease with products based on an intuitive, simple platform technology. We are encouraged by the success to date and look forward to helping the management team build a world-class company,” said Colin Cahill, vice president at Venrock.
In advanced vascular disease, atherosclerosis becomes calcified deep inside the vessel walls, limiting blood flow. These deposits are difficult to treat because they limit the effectiveness of current endovascular devices, making today’s interventions challenging and prone to both procedural and long-term failure. Lithoplasty is a balloon-based technology that utilises integrated lithotripsy, a pulsatile mechanical energy commonly used to break up kidney stones, to disrupt both superficial and deep calcium and normalise vessel wall compliance prior to low-pressure balloon dilatation. Lithoplasty is designed to be naturally gentle to soft tissue (non-diseased portions of the vessel) while targeting calcium, the tissue that limits vessel expansion and the effectiveness of current technologies.
