PQ Bypass raises $60M to fund PAD Detour graft tech

PQ Bypass has gathered $60 million in equity financing to move forward with its minimally invasive technology for treating long blockages in leg arteries caused by peripheral artery disease.

The round—led by Deerfield Management, with participation from the company’s previous backers Seroba Life Sciences and MedTech Venture Partners—also allowed the Sunnyvale, California-based company to convert about $15 million in outstanding debt and interest to equity.

Extreme blockages in PAD, with segments of plaque as long as 15 to 20 centimeters or more, can be very challenging to treat, and can cause pain, loss of mobility or even amputation of the lower leg and foot.

While procedures such as angioplasty and stenting work on shorter blockages, they have not been as effective on longer ones, often resulting in repeat procedures within one year, the company said in a statement. Instead, patients typically undergo an open bypass surgery in the leg, requiring longer hospital stays and rehabilitation.

RELATED: PQ Bypass gets CE mark for peripheral artery disease tech

PQ Bypass’ Detour procedure, or a percutaneous femoropopliteal bypass, places a stent graft from the femoral artery into the femoral vein, and then back into the popliteal artery, circumventing the blockage and restoring blood flow through a minimally invasive, fluoroscopically guided procedure.

The company currently has a prospective, single-arm clinical trial underway, which aims to enroll up to 292 participants at 40 international centers.

In March 2017, the company received a CE mark for its suite of devices used to perform the Detour procedure: including the Torus stent graft, and a snare and crossing device used to retrieve foreign bodies and place guidewires.

A previous single-arm trial of 59 patients met its primary endpoint with a patency rate of 84.7%, or the proportion of vessels that remained open after six-months, and with a 30-day major adverse event rate of 3.4%.