Bay Area startup Outset Medical has built an at-home hemodialysis machine that’s meant to be simple for consumers with kidney failure to use – and has raised an impressive swath of capital to do so.
The Warburg Pincus-backed Outset just raised nearly $60 million dollars in an apparent Series B round, according to regulatory filings. However, a spokeswoman for the company said this isn’t the complete amount and will release a more accurate funding figure in the coming weeks. She didn’t comment further on the fundraise.
Why an at-home hemodialysis device? The standard process is quite cumbersome: Patients with kidney failure typically have to go to a clinic three times a week, and sit still for several hours while their blood is cleaned.
There’s been a movement to allow patients to undergo dialysis at home – but even then, the training time takes up to two months. It’s not exactly simple.
Outset’s blood-filtering device, called the Tablo, filters and purifies regular tap water, creates dialysate, takes a patient’s blood pressure and deliver medication.
It touts a simple user interface: With a touchscreen display, it offers step-by-step pictures and “conversational instructions that make it hard to mess up no matter how new a patient, or caregiver, may be to dialysis.” It’s in a compact, table-height device, Outset says – no hospital poles or additional equipment.
“We’ve set out to give people their time back,” Outset says of its device. “Tablo dramatically reduces the time involved in setting up and managing dialysis, whether at home in in clinic. There is simply less to do and less to learn.”
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.
The device already has FDA clearance for use in clinics and hospitals, and is still working for approval in home use. It’s enrolling patients in clinical trials for at-home use this year.
This is a Warburg Pincus Ventures-backed company, launched in 2010, with two board of directors and CEO Leslie Trigg hailing from the private equity firm. Another listed investor is The Vertical Group, though this $60 million filing indicates 11 investors participated in the new round.
Warburg Pincus says Outset Medical’s competing in a $13 billion worldwide dialysis market. It writes about the Tablo:
With the dialysis patient population growing and dialysis reimbursement declining, Outset’s Tablo Hemodialysis System is aimed specifically at lowering costs for dialysis providers and meaningfully improving the care experience for patients.
The company’s clearly got aims to hit it big among consumers – check out the slick marketing in this video explaining the Tablo:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8To89UQietM]
According to previous regulatory filings, it looks as though prior to this large fundraise, the company’s brought in about $9.5 million.
[PHOTO: Outset Medical]
