An infusion of capital will help NeoChord go the distance. Previously, the company had raised $1.76 million from angel investors in a convertible debt offering. Clarian Health Ventures, an Indiana-based fund, made the investment. The company is both an investor and a clinical partner, said NeoChord’s CEO, John Seaberg.
“We were attracted to the presence of a partner such as the Mayo Clinic, the quality of the management team and angel investors,” commented Kyle Salyers, managing director of Business Development at Clarian. The firm has made investments Celleration and CS-Keys, both Midwestern med tech companies.
NeoChord aims to significantly improve the surgical repair of mitral valve regurgitation through the use of minimally invasive surgical techniques. NeoChords’s technology (licensed from the Mayo Clinic, which also has an equity position in the company) eliminates the need for a sternotomy and cardio pulmonary bypass.
The market for less invasive mitral valve repair has been estimated at over $2 billion. Each year 250,000 new patients are diagnosed with mitral regurgitation in the U.S; there are 50,000 surgeries performed annually. Additionally there are over two million U.S patients with mitral regurgitation who have not been treated because the risks of the current procedure are deemed too high compared to the severity of their disease.
The technology has been used – successfully – in two patients at the Mayo Clinic. NeoChord will conduct pre-clinical and human clinical trials over the next year. According to Seaberg, the product could reach the market by 2010 or 2011, at the earliest.
Previously: [Video Profile] Interview with John Seaberg, CEO of NeoChord