Cardialen raised $17 million to fund its work on a low-energy defibrillator that aims to more gently restore a normal heart rhythm, with the goal of developing an implantable device that avoids the negative effects of high-energy shocks.
The series B round was led by RiverVest Venture Partners, alongside Qiming Venture Partners, HBM Healthcare Investments and Cultivation Capital.
The financing will advance the Minneapolis-based Cardialen’s clinical program with additional human safety testing of its unpinning termination therapy, which delivers a sequence of smaller electrical pulses designed to slow rapid heart rates.
“Today’s implantable defibrillator therapy generates painful high-energy shocks that are associated with undesirable mortality that is expected to be reduced for patients receiving fewer shocks or a low-energy therapy,” said Cardialen’s founder and scientific advisor Igor Efimov, the Alisann & Terry Collins professor and chairman of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at The George Washington University.
In a statement, the company said its early feasibility testing suggests that its therapy may successfully treat heart rhythm disorders with substantially less energy compared to existing defibrillators.
“We think Cardialen’s UPT therapy meets a unique need in the large current and potential defibrillator market,” said Jay Schmelter, managing director of RiverVest Ventures, who joins the company’s board of directors. “Early UPT therapy results look promising and we’re looking forward to partnering with Cardialen on this innovative approach.”