You may find life on Mars before finding an early stage medical device company with a novel therapy that has been able to raise venture capital in the U.S. That was the hard reality that Mardil Medical, a Minnesota medical device firm that has developed a minimally invasive therapy to treat functional mitral valve regurgitation without performing open-heart surgery or pulmonary bypass, found itself in. CEO Jim Buck decided if Asia is a place where clinical trials could be run, then why not raise money from there too? Mardil is raising several millions of dollars from a venture capital fund backed by the Malaysian government, and the deal could close as early as next week. He won’t reveal more details but he did chat with MedCity News after his panel discussion about accessing capital and finding strategic partners in Asia at the annual LifeScience Alley Conference.
