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The funding round was led by an unnamed multinational, which has the option to buy Vivasure upon reaching ‘certain milestones’.
Vivasure Medical, a medtech company based in Galway, has raised €22m to help fund the clinical development and regulatory approval of its percutaneous vessel closure technology.
The company has built a device called PerQseal, which it pitches as the first sutureless and fully absorbable synthetic implant for large-bore arterial vessel punctures, available to physicians across Europe for use in endovascular procedures.
Its proprietary bioabsorbable intravascular patch seals blood vessels from the inside, returning the artery or vein to its natural state without leaving behind the remains of any materials such as collagen, metal implants or sutures commonly used in other closure methods.
The fresh investment was led by an unnamed multinational strategic corporation. The financing includes the option to buy Vivasure Medical when it reaches “certain milestones”.
Existing investors Fountain Healthcare Partners, Orchestra BioMed, LSP Health Economics Fund, Panakès Partners and Evonik Venture Capital also participated in this round.
Vivasure, which has been previously backed by the European Innovation Council, said this is just the first part of a Series D round that could to raise up to €52m in total.
“As minimally invasive approaches have become the standard of care for cardiovascular procedures, conventional vessel closure techniques have proven to prolong recovery and lead to bleeding complications for patients,” said Vivasure CEO Andrew Glass.
“We are encouraged by early clinical progress from leading heart centres participating in studies currently underway for PerQseal+ and PerQseal Blue, and we look forward to initiating a US pivotal study for PerQseal+ later this year that will support our submission to the FDA.”
While PerQseal and PerQseal+ are medical devices for arterial closure, PerQseal Blue is for venous closure. The financing will help fund the clinical development and regulatory approval of all three devices in the US and Europe.
“While tremendous progress has been made for minimally invasive structural heart procedures, vascular issues related to the closure of the procedure remain the most common complication of these interventions,” said Azeem Latib, MD and director of interventional cardiology at Montefiore Health System.
“The novel PerQseal technology is designed to address these shortcomings and has tremendous potential to improve patient outcomes and enhance procedure efficiency.”
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