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| CardioKinetix has enrolled its first patients in a pivotal trial of Parachute, a minimally invasive treatment for heart failure.--Courtesy of CardioKinetix |
In the fall of 2011, CardioKinetix raised the first half of its $44 million Series E round. Now, the California company and 2012 Fierce 15 winner has nailed down the difference, a $23 million second tranche. Plans call for putting the money to work immediately in a variety of ways to advance the company's second-generation Parachute Ventricular Partitioning Device for heart failure.
"It's a big deal," CEO Maria Sainz told FierceMedicalDevices about the latest round. "It's an acknowledgment of all the greatest accomplishments of 2012."
The Parachute is designed to treat patients via a catheter who face heart failure caused by damage to the heart muscle after a heart attack. And over the last year, the company made progress with the device on a number of fronts.
CardioKinetix has now treated 100 patients with the device. In December, the company began enrolling the first of 500 patients in a controlled, one-to-one randomized IDE study in the U.S. that will compare the second-generation Parachute to standard therapies in patients with ischemic heart failure. In Europe, Parachute's latest iteration now has a CE mark, and the company is prepping its initial commercial release in Germany, most likely by April (a unique reimbursement code is already in place). CardioKinetix's cash infusion will support each effort, Sainz explained.
"We're ready to move forward and accelerate further with enrollment in the [U.S.] trial, and launch in Europe what we believe is the right iteration of the latest-generation system," Sainz added, noting the money "will fund all of those programs as we continue to advance them forward."
Panorama Capital led the Series E second tranche, which also included existing investors U.S. Venture Partners, JPMorgan Partners, New Leaf Venture Partners, SV Life Sciences, H&Q Healthcare Investors ($HQH) and H&Q Life Sciences Investors ($HQL).
- read the release
Special Report: CardioKinetix – 2012 Fierce 15