Bay Area device startup Shockwave Medical just raised $40 million to build out its balloon catheters to be used in peripheral, coronary and aortic valve surgeries. It uses the same basic technology used to break up kidney stones – but applies it to the calcium plaques built up in patients with advanced vascular disease.
The round was led by Sofinnova Partners and new investor Venrock, with other investors including RA Capital, Deerfield, Sectoral Asset Management, Ally Bridge Group and two undisclosed, large-cap strategics.
The line of catheters, called Lithoplasty, are particularly geared toward the atherosclerosis typical of advanced vascular disease, where blood flow is limited.
“These deposits are difficult to treat because they limit the effectiveness of current endovascular devices, making today’s interventions challenging and prone to both procedural and longterm failure,” Shockwave says.
This balloon-based technology uses the same kinds of pulsations used in kidney stone lithotripsy – disrupting the superficial and deep calcium buildup and normalizes vessels before low-pressure balloon dilation. It’s designed to be gentle inside these soft tissues, but is “hard on calcium.”
The company has a CE mark for use in Europe, but isn’t yet available in the U.S.
Here’s a video of how it works:
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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Shockwave Lithoplasty(tm) from Shockwave on Vimeo.
