CLEVELAND, Ohio — A couple of Midwest biomedical companies announced new venture financing this week. Could the deep freeze for early-stage investments be thawing?
On Monday, we reported that OrthoHelix Surgical Designs in Akron, Ohio, won $2 million to increase advertising for its plates, screws, washers and other tools and devices used in hand and foot reconstructive surgery, and to sell its products in more states.
The same day we got word that Inspire Medical Systems Inc. in Minneapolis had raised $17 million to pay for ongoing clinical trials of its device to treat one type of sleep apnea. The Inspire system is an implantable device that delivers electrical stimulation to prevent the closure of the upper airway that can stop airflow for patients who have obstructive sleep apnea. We also wrote about a three-year commitment by Huntington Bank in Columbus, Ohio, to lend $1 billion to keep, grow or attract jobs and small businesses in Ohio.
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Tuesday brought information about earmark requests from Ohio health care organizations for this year’s federal budget. Emergency medical helicopters, technology upgrades, drug development and commercial research requests topped the list. Invacare Corp.’s chairman and CEO, Mal Mixon, also talked to us that day about how his company had sidestepped the world economic crisis. Invacare in Elyria, Ohio, makes home health care products and equipment.
And on Thursday, we told you about a French surgical robot that helped a MetroHealth Medical Center surgeondo a single-incision hysterectomy all by himself. That was the same day we found out that Ali Rezai, one of the Cleveland Clinic’s top neurosurgeons and a prolific inventor, would leave this summer to become vice chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the Ohio State University Medical Center.
On Friday, Summa Health System and Western Reserve Hospital Partners cleared the final regulatory hurdlethat will let Western Reserve, a for-profit organization, to operate at the non-profit Summa Cuyahoga Falls General Hospital. Western Reserve will take over operations on June 24.
We also reported that recession, economic stimulus, a new administration and globalization have changed the research and development funding picture so much this year that R&D Magazine and Battelle for the first time ever updated their closely watched forecast. The big winner in the updated forecast? The National Institutes of Health.