A Carlsbad, California device start-up is seeking $14 million to develop its atrial fibrillation treatment, according to a regulatory filing.
Medical Device Innovations Inc., which has developed a catheter-based therapy to treat AF, is expecting to close the $14 million round by the end of the year, said Chris Kunis, founder and CTO. He added that the lead investor will be Versant Ventures.
A previous,angel round of funding in October, 2011, brought in $1.1 million, Kunis said.
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The $14 million funding would be used to run clinical trials, among other things, of “a game-changing technology” to treat AF. However, Kunis declined to provide details about it saying that it was “under wraps” precisely because it was so novel. He did reveal that the catheter-based technology is a “passive system” that doesn’t rely on any energy source and has been shown to, over the long term, isolate the pulmonary vein. That is in contrast to current catheter-based ablation techniques that use heat or cold energy to try and isolate the pulmonary veins that are known to generate atrial fibrillation.
On its website, MDI says that ablation has several limitations – the procedures are long, technically challenging and require highly skilled clinicians.
The CEO of the company is Michael Dale, who is the former CEO of ATS Medical, which was acquired by Medtronic in 2010.
