Existing investors, including Forbion Capital Partners (formerly ABN AMRO Life Sciences) and Oxford Biosciences Partners., as well as new partners, Foundation Medical Partners, the lead investor, and SB Life Science Ventures participated in the Series B financing. The Series B funding will support the company's First in Man trial in 2007 and the start of the United States investigational device exemption Phase I Feasibility trial enrollment in 2008.
"I am pleased that this Series B financing will allow CircuLite to continue our strategic initiatives and to move forward with the initial phases of our clinical trials. The ongoing support of our existing investors, and the addition of Foundation Medical and SB Life Science, reflects their confidence in our unique market transforming technology," said Paul Southworth, President and Chief Executive Officer of CircuLite. "We are very excited about the clinical potentials of the Synergy(TM) Pocket Circulatory Assist device and are confident that the clinical trial outcome data will demonstrate positive clinical benefits in the management of patients with chronic heart failure."
Over 5 million patients suffer from heart failure in the United States and there are approximately 500,000 new cases diagnosed each year. Heart failure is a progressive and disabling disease that is characterized by the decreasing ability of the heart to provide sufficient blood flow to meet the metabolic needs of the body. For approximately 1 million chronic heart failure patients in the U.S., the disease has progressed to a state in which the patients are receiving limited or no clinical benefit from conventional medical therapy, resulting in a diminishing quality of life.
"CircuLite has developed a truly unique technology. It is tiny relative to today's surgical devices and can be placed minimally invasively. This should be attractive to a large group of heart failure patients who currently are not well-treated by conventional medicine," said Bartley Griffith, MD, Chief of the Division of Cardiac Surgery and Director of Heart and Lung Transplantation in the Department of Surgery at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, MD. "This miniature device is intended to provide increased cardiac output for these patients reducing their heart failure symptoms. A device, such as the Synergy device, is truly needed and has the potential to significantly improve the quality of life of millions of chronic heart failure patients."
About CircuLite
CircuLite is a privately held, medical device company developing a unique superficially placed circulatory assist device for the treatment of chronic heart failure. The company's Synergy(TM) Pocket Circulatory Assist device is in preclinical studies and the company is preparing for the First in Man implant in 2007. The Synergy device features a micro-pump that is placed superficially in the "pacemaker pocket". The micro-pump is minimally invasively connected to the Left Atrium and the Subclavian Artery, and can pump up to 3 liters of blood flow per minute. The minimally invasive placement of the device will allow the transformation of the treatment of chronic heart failure patients from the acute decompensated hospitalized patient to the chronic, ambulatory heart failure patient.
The company was founded in 2004 by Accelerated Technologies, Inc. and is headquartered in Hackensack, New Jersey with a GmbH in Aachen, Germany.
About Foundation Medical Partners
Foundation Medical Partners is a national, independent venture capital investment firm focused exclusively on health care opportunities. The firm has a special interest in medical devices and invests in ventures that demonstrate the capability to improve the practice of medicine and human health.
About SB Life Science Ventures
SB Life Science Ventures is a venture capital firm with committed life sciences venture capital fund backed by prominent institutional investors from Japan. The firm aims to identify and invest in exceptional businesses that have the potential to transform the practice of medicine and health care.
Contact: CircuLite Incorporated Paul J. Southworth, +1-201-543-2430 President and CEO or Gail G. Farnan, +1-201-543-0337 Vice President, Marketing
Source: CircuLite Incorporated
