New Jersey-based Tyrx, has raised $20 million in venture capital funding. The funding was led by new investor, HLM Venture Partners along with previous investors Clarus Ventures and Pappas Ventures. The financing round also included $4 million in debt financing from Comerica Bank.
Tyrx makes implantable medical devices designed to help reduce surgical-site infections associated with implantable pacemakers and defibrillators. The drug/device combo, called AIGISRx, is an anti-bacterial envelope that holds a pacemaker or implantable cardioverter-defibrillator. The biocompatible mesh is coated with antibiotics that dissolve over the course of seven days. In a study of 642 patients, Tyrx said that use of its device resulted in 70 percent fewer infections and showed no infections in patients receiving initial implantations of pacemakers or implantable defibrillators. AIGISRx has been implanted in more than 13,000 patients in 2010. Tyrx is further studying the device in 4,300 more patients.
"With over 500,000 critically important pacemakers and defibrillators being implanted annually in the United States, and an infection rate that is growing much faster than the growth in procedures, TYRX has a unique and powerful solution," notes Edward Cahill, a managing partner of HLM Venture. "Each infection typically costs between $28,000 and $58,000 but can exceed $100,000. In addition major infections carry a very high risk of death with 1-year patient mortality recently reported to be over 17 percent. TYRX is the leader in addressing this important patient safety issue and offers a meaningful improvement in the quality of patient care."
- take a look at Tyrx's release