Claret Medical has announced that it has entered into an agreement for up to US$18 million in a Series B financing. The Series B round was led by Santé Ventures, a prominent healthcare-focused venture capital firm with US$260 million in capital under management, with participation from Lightstone Ventures, a leading venture capital firm with US$172 million under management. Easton Capital also joined the round. James Eadie from Santé Ventures and Hank Plain from Lightstone Ventures will be joining the company’s Board of Directors.
Proceeds will be used primarily to complete the US pivotal trial of the company’s Sentinel cerebral protection system for embolic protection during transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), which received Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) approval earlier this year.
The Sentinel cerebral protection system is the only filter-based system on the market that both captures and removes embolic debris released during TAVI procedures that could otherwise be a source of peri-procedural stroke. The system has been used in more than 800 procedures worldwide to date.
“Many consider the stroke rate in TAVI concerning, especially as clinicians look to bring the benefits of TAVI to lower risk and younger patients,” says Azin Parhizgar, president and chief executive officer of Claret Medical. “The proceeds of this financing round will enable Claret Medical to conduct the SENTINEL pivotal trial, which we expect to confirm the therapeutic importance of embolic debris capture and removal during TAVI. This same approach has long been established in carotid stenting procedures.”
“The SENTINEL trial will evaluate the role of the Sentinel cerebral protection system in reducing the number and size of new ischaemic lesions in the brain and their potential impact on patients’ neurocognitive function,” says Martin Leon, director of the Center for Interventional Vascular Therapy at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, USA and chair of the trial’s Clinical Steering Committee. “By doing so, the trial will help define the field of cerebral protection during TAVI in order to pave the way for safer TAVI procedures.”
The company is also embarking upon two other studies of structural heart procedures that could benefit from the use of the Sentinel cerebral protection system in reducing cerebrovascular events during complex surgical and transcatheter procedures.
