A Minnesota medical device company has raised $2.5 million in its second round of financing, according to a Form D filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. KSpine’s spinal implant to treat scoliosis requires a less invasive surgical procedure, the company says.
Ross Longhini, KSpine’s board chairman, told MedCity News that KSpine will use the investment to fund clinical trials of the device.
Scoliosis is typically treated one of two ways — with an external brace or surgical intervention. Longhini said that the company’s device involves fewer screws and only one rod. “One way to characterize it is it requires significantly less hardware. It is a rod but the rod is anchored to the spine using a standard medical screw construct,” Longhini said.
KSpine Inc. is led by CEO Fred W. Kornahrens. Longhini,who also is co-founder of Voyageur Medical, an early stage investor in medical device companies said that KSpine has raised $16 million since its launch in early 2008, primarily from two investors — Split Rock Partners in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Abingworth, an investment company targeting life sciences and healthcare, in the United Kingdom.
The device was developed by Dr. Allen Carl and Dan Sachs, a physician entrepreneur who is a director at KSpine, who also co-founded Cardiac Concepts (now Respicardia) and Mainstay Medical.
Scoliosis affects roughly 6 million people in the United States. Other companies are also developing treatments for scoliosis such as SpineForm and Medtronic.
