BioVentrix has collected $48.5 million in venture capital funding to help carry its treatment for ischemic heart failure to an FDA review.
The former Fierce Medtech Fierce 15 winner’s minimally invasive Revivent TC system is designed to help reshape the heart’s left ventricle as it recovers from the severe trauma of a heart attack.
By embedding a series of small anchors in the dilated and scarred cardiac wall, the muscle can be tightened up to help it pump blood out to the body more efficiently.
The approach previously received a CE Mark in Europe as well as a breakthrough designation from the FDA, and earlier this year the agency granted a green light to an expanded access program allowing the ongoing usage of the implants in high-risk patients with heart failure.
Now, the company’s fresh series A financing will support BioVentrix’s submissions for full premarket approval, slated for later this year, as well as preparations for a U.S. commercial launch. The round was led by Andera Partners, and backed by Cormorant Asset Management, Taglich Brothers, Squarepoint Capital and Richmond Brothers.
“Treating advanced heart failure patients through left ventricular restoration is now recognized by the clinical cardiology community as an approach whose time has come,” BioVentrix President and CEO Jim Dillon said in the company’s announcement.
In early 2022, BioVentrix expanded its options for addressing a damaged left ventricle—in a step toward building “a platform of synergistic therapies,” Dillon said at the time—by buying up MateraCor for an undisclosed amount.
The California startup had been developing a hydrogel injection for strengthening the heart muscle wall by embedding a series of beads in a ring around the ventricle.