A BREAKTHROUGH device to allow doctors remove clots from the brains of patients after strokes will undergo human clinical trials after the firm behind it secured $6.5 million (€5.2) from two Irish-based venture capital firms.
Neuravi, a Galway-based medical device start-up, expects to employ 25 people over the next three years as the series of funding drives development of the device, which uses stent basket technology to quickly treat patients after a stroke.
Fountain Healthcare Partners and Delta Partners are providing 90 per cent of the funding. Existing investor the Western Development Commission is also involved.
Three of the men behind Neuravi – chief executive Eamon Brady, chairman John O’Shaughnessy and chief technology officer David Vale – were previously involved in a medical device business, MedNova, which was sold in 2005 to Abbott for more than $100 million. The fourth founding member of Neuravi, endovascular specialist Dr Mahmood Razavi, was formerly associate professor at Stanford University Medical Center.
The company is targeting a market conservatively estimated at $2 billion per annum. “Around 700,000 patients in the US and 950,000 in Europe suffer ischemic stroke [caused by clots] each year,” said Mr Brady. “A staggering 95 per cent of them receive no acute intervention, relying solely on rehabilitation.”
The company expects the funding raised to allow it to complete testing their design, set up a manufacturing line, conduct clinical trials and secure European approval for their device.
Further funding of about €10 million, expected to occur in 2014-2015, is likely to drive subsequent approval in the US.
“We are looking at one of the most talented teams in micro-engineering in medtech and we are backing them to do it,” said Fountain Healthcare partner Justin Lynch.
