CoAptus Medical Corp. has received commitments for $3 million and is looking to raise more as the Redmond company continues to work on a non-implantable device that is designed to reverse a common heart defect that's found in about 25 percent of humans.
The passageway -- known as a patent foramen ovale -- doesn't close after birth in some cases and that can lead to migraine headaches and strokes. In one of the highest profile cases, New England Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi suffered a stroke due to the condition.
Founded in 2004 as a unit of Boston Scientific, CoAptus is still years away from gaining approval for the treatment which uses a catheter to "weld" tissue together between the left and right atriums of the heart. The Redmond company plans to complete animal testing this summer, with human trials on tap for next year in Germany. If all goes as planned, co-founder Joseph Eichinger, a medical device veteran who previously worked at Therus, Ekos and ATL Ultrasound, said the company could commercialize the product in 2013.
"If I had a billion dollars in the bank, I couldn't make it go faster," said Eichinger, noting the long regulatory approval process. And while it may not take billions to develop, Eichinger said that the company would probably need to raise an additional $30 million to $50 million to push the product through human trials in the U.S.
Nonetheless, Eichinger thinks that the company may have figured out how to solve the heart defect. And he speaks from experience, since this is the company's second go at the problem
In 2006, the company -- then part of Boston Scientific -- had created a novel design concept to close the passageway. "All of us were convinced it was perfect," said Eichinger, who co-founded the company with Mark Reisman, director of the Cardiac Catheritization Lab at Swedish Hospital in Seattle.
The first incarnation of the device worked flawlessly in studies on pigs, but when it entered human trials the procedure faltered.
That prompted the team -- whose board includes former Heart Technology CEO David Auth and Minneapolis Heart Institute founder Robert Van Tassel -- to start over. "We literally took out a clean sheet of paper and decided on a completely new approach to the problem," said Eichinger.
That set back was followed by a new ownership structure after Boston Scientific unloaded a number of technologies last year. As part of that deal, San Francisco-based Saints Capital became a shareholder in the independent company. (It is also a participant in the latest financing round, which has yet to close.)
Even though the first incarnation of the product failed, Eichinger said the company learned from those efforts. And now, he's confident that they may have figured out how to solve the heart defect in a manner that's less invasive than other treatments that require metal implants.
Using the catheter, Eichinger said they can squeeze tissues together and then use heat to essentially "weld" the passageway together. The big benefit is that patients would not have to go through life with a metal implant in their heart, which can lead to other medical issues.
"Basically, we are completing the job that nature didn't finish," said Eichinger, adding that their goal is "to leave no device behind."
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