A medical device company has raised nearly $1.3 million to advance a diagnostic to detect life-threatening bleeding and blood clots, according to a Form D filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
HemoSonics‘ Point of Care Analyzer evaluates the systems that manage clotting: platelets, coagulation factors, fibrinogen and fibrinolytic proteins.
The device is being developed for its first application in open-heart surgery. Bleeding disorders during surgery can result in heart attack, stroke, pulmonary embolism and hemorrhage. The goal is to deliver a rapid assessment during surgical procedures when time is a critical factor in patient outcomes.
Last fall, the Charlottesville, Virginia-based medical device company enlisted Cambridge Consultants to help it navigate each stage of development and get the device ready for large-scale clinical use, according to a company statement.
The device is being developed for its first application in open-heart surgery. The company also sees scope for the device in in trauma and intensive care along with orthopedic surgery and neurosurgery, clot screening for oral contraception and perinatal care.
In a presentation before investors organized by Mid-Atlantic Diamond Venture Partners last year.
William Walker, HemoSonics president, said current biochemical coagulation tests are limited in what they can do because they only assess parts of the clotting process. Diagnostic devices currently available tend to be slow, expensive and can only be used in a central lab.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
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