Devices & Diagnostics

Women’s health devicemaker Cervilenz ups series A to $8.35M

Women’s health medical device company Cervilenz has increased its series A round of investment to […]

Women’s health medical device company Cervilenz has increased its series A round of investment to $8.35 million, thanks to a recent tranche of funding from existing investors.

Cleveland-area Cervilenz plans to use the funding to continue commercialization of its device, which provides a means of accurately and inexpensively measuring a pregnant woman’s cervix. A short cervix is the best predictor of preterm birth risk.

“We’re focused on early adoption of the device and introducing it to the market,” said CEO Dean Koch, who was hesitant to reveal much about the company’s commercialization strategy for competitive reasons.

The company recently hit a significant milestone when it received the European Union’s CE Mark, giving the company the right to sell the device in the EU, Koch said.

Cervilenz could be poised for big things next year, when a progesterone drug to reduce the rates of preterm birth in pregnant women with a short cervix is expected to hit the market. Cervilenz’s device could be used as a screening tool to identify candidates for the drug, opening up a large and potentially lucrative market for the low-cost device.

The device “is primed for commercial use just at a time when there’s a therapy available to help these women who Cervilenz helps determine are at risk,” said Koleman Karleski, managing director with Chrysalis Ventures, one of Cervilenz’s investors.

The CerviLenz device is already on the U.S. market, though Koch stressed in a previous interview that the company hasn’t yet entered “full-scale commercialization mode.”  For those given to speculation, it seems reasonable to infer that Cervilenz is awaiting U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of a progesterone drug before ramping up significant commercialization of its device.

In addition to Louisville, Kentucky-based Chrysalis, Cervilenz’s investors include Arboretum Ventures in Ann Arbor, Michigan, plus Cleveland’s North Coast Angel Fund and JumpStart.

There are more than 500,000 preterm births (defined as birth prior to 37 weeks of gestation) every year in the U.S. In a 2006 report, the Institute of Medicine put the cost of these births at $26 billion a year, which “constitutes a public health concern that costs society” in hardship and grief, not to mention dollars.

Koch imagines the CerviLenz device being used for multiple measurements during a woman’s pregnancy. With more than 4 million American women getting pregnant each year, and the device costing about $50, some simple math shows that Cervilenz stands to pull in substantial revenues if its device achieves the widespread adoption the company and its investors think it will — likely making Cervilenz an attractive acquisition target for a big device firm.

Shares0
Shares0