Stentys completes $18 million financing for bifurcated stent
production
31 March 2008
Paris-based Stentys has completed an $18 million ‘series B’ round of
venture financing that will allow it to complete clinical trials and
obtain EU clearance for its drug-eluting, bifurcated stent.
The lead investor was UK venture firm Scottish Equity Partners.
Series A investor Sofinnova Partners also participated in the B round.
Brian Kerr, one of the founding directors of Scottish Equity Partners
and a Partner in the firm’s Healthcare Group, will join the Stentys
Board of Directors.
Coronary artery disease, one of the leading causes of mortality in
the world, is caused by fatty lesions that narrow the coronary artery
and reduce blood flow, resulting in an often-lethal myocardial
infarction (heart attack). Cardiologists have been using stents (small
meshed metal tubes) to unclog the artery, but they are ill-suited to
treat artery bifurcations, the area where one main vessel branches out
into two smaller vessels. In fact, the procedure does not work in more
than one patient out of five, and these patients must subsequently
undergo a second intervention, and quite often open-chest surgery.
Narrowings at a bifurcation site are quite common. The patent-pending
innovation of Stentys’ bifurcated stent is that the stent opening for
the side branch can be created anywhere in the stent after it is
implanted in the vessel. In short, the procedure’s success is
independent from precise positioning at the bifurcation.
“Stentys has achieved a major breakthrough in terms of patient
safety, ease of use for cardiologists, and clinical efficacy,” said
Brian Kerr. “It has a high-calibre management team, and it has made
rapid progress towards obtaining regulatory approval. There is a $1
billion-plus market opportunity for its product, and we are confident
that the company will deliver significant value.”
“Stentys has come a long way in a short period of time,” concluded
Jacques Séguin, MD, PhD, Co-Founder and Non-Executive President of
Stentys as well as Founder, Chairman, and CEO of CoreValve. “The fact
that two of Europe’s most successful venture capital firms are solidly
behind the Company underscores not only the very significant potential
of the Stentys bifurcated platform but also the Company’s swift success
in validating proof of principle. As its dedicated bifurcation stent
shows further efficacy and safety in the clinic, the market for the
innovative Stentys devices will watch closely — because cardiologists
now consider the current, standard stents as sub-optimal for
bifurcations.”