Cleveland Clinic spinoff Clear Catheter raises first institutional funding

A magnet outside the guide tube (A) works with a guide wire and magnet inside the tube (B) to clean the chest tube without breaking the sterile field.

A Cleveland Clinic spinoff that’s developed a self-clearing catheter system has raised its first institutional round of investment funding.

Clear Catheter Systems has landed a $4 million round, led by Aphelion Capital and California Technology Ventures, with participation from Research Corporation Technologies, according to a statement from Bend, Oregon-based Clear Catheter.

Clear Catheter plans to use the funding to commercialize its PleuraFlow Active Tube-Clearance System, which uses magnets and a wire loop to keep catheters clear while draining blood and other fluids from the chest after heart or lung surgery. Passive tubes can clog and pose threats like infection and death, according to the company.

The company about a year ago received U.S. regulatory approval to sell the device, and already had received European and Canadian regulatory approval.

Clear Catheter raised $1.2 million in equity in a 2010 round that was led by the Oregon Angel Fund.

Cleveland Clinic spun off Clear Catheter Systems, then known as PleuraFlow, in 2007. The company closed its initial round of seed investment from the Cleveland Clinic and Bend Venture Angel Investors in August of that year.

Brandon Glenn MedCity News

Brandon Glenn is the Ohio bureau chief for MedCity News.

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Tags: Clear Catheter Systems, Cleveland Clinic, dealflow, medical devices, Northeast Ohio, Ohio

Comments Post a comment

You mention that The Cleveland Clinic invested in the company in this Oregon-based company in 2007. A google search shows that they’ve also received investment from the Ohio Third Frontier Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center to relocate to Ohio. The only company contact information is for Bend, Oregon.

If the company has received any investments originating from Ohio job creation initiatives such as Ohio Third Frontier, is there any evidence that they have relocated and created Ohio jobs? Is there a mechanism for taxpayers to get paid back if jobs are not created? If these investments generate returns, will taxpayers receive any of the benefit prior to the cash is distributed as bonuses to Cleveland Clinic staff, as you’ve previously reported? Does the system really condone investing taxpayer money with the sole benefit of padding paychecks for the individuals that control the funds?

These would be reasonable questions to answer for all companies that have received State sourced investments. Hopefully there are acceptable answers.

Comment by anonymous — January 3, 2012 @ 8:35 pm

Anonymous,

That is a very good question. Here is a link to an article posted today in Crains’ that asks the same questions.

http://crainscleveland.com/article/20120105/FREE/120109923

Some serious questions need to be asked of the people who have been in place doling out 3rd Frontier money for the last few years at ODOD. It seems that all a company has to do is call NEO their official HQ regardless of whether there have any employees, offices and staff here.

Here is a quote from the comment section of the crains article.

“This is not an isolated instance as there are other examples where ODOD has a hear no evil, see no evil approach when following up on whether the companies who recieved grants, loans or tax credits via the 3rd Frontier and Ohio Venture Capital Fund actually lived up to their job creation end of the agreement.

Last week the State Attorney General’s offices issued are report saying that only 52% of companies recieved these awards fulfilled their job creation requirments. More disturbing in this report was that the reason last years report claimed the number was 90% was due to the fact that the data was compiled by a voluntary survey sent to the companies which was not audited and only 25% of companies returned this survey.

It is encouraging that there is a new director at ODOD was quoted in the article saying this won’t continue and there is a “new sherrif in town”. However, many of the top people who administered the 3rd Frontier monies are still in place.

These people must have known that such a large percentage of these companies were not performing and if they didn’t, there is no excuse as they are the ones who are responsible to report it so the money can be clawed back.

This isn’t a small amount of money and in total it millions of dollars. Who is watching after our taxpayer dollars? It seems like these people were more concerned with finding a way to put out a report that makes it look like they are doing a good job at the cost of allowing millions of tax dollars to escape that the state has a right to claw back.

I hope more people start writing about this causing real scrutiny over the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars ODOD, 3rd Frontier and Ohio Capital Fund has released in the last five years.”

Comment by Mike Burkons — January 5, 2012 @ 4:15 pm