France's ProTip nails down $4.7M for larynx replacement implant trials

French medical device developer ProTip has pulled in $4.7 million in Series C financing (€3.8 million), new money designed to help advance human clinical trials for the company's larynx replacement implant.

The 8-year-old company, based in Strasbourg, bills its ENTegral device as "the world's first permanent implant to replace the larynx" for patients who have had a total laryngectomy. That's a drastic surgery typically used for patients who have had laryngeal cancer, leaving them breathing through a tracheotomy opening in the neck, unable to speak naturally without a voice box or other mechanical aid. One human clinical trial is underway. ProTip said it will use the new investment to finish its initial trial and launch others, with an eye toward seeking regulatory approval.

This will be a company to watch because the company's product appears to be the first of its kind designed to eliminate the need for a tracheotomy for patients who have the laryngectomy surgery, allowing patients to breath naturally.

Seventure lead the company's latest round, which also included existing investors Fonds Lorrain des Materiaux, the Berchet family-office, Alsace Amorcage and other private ones. The company launched in 2004 and is focused on developing devices to treat patients who have larynx-related problems. Since its beginning, ProTip says it has raised €6.8 million (almost $8.6 million).

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