Sources inform ''Globes'' that NiTi Surgical Solutions Ltd. yesterday raised $18.5 million in a financing round led by Dutch life sciences and biomedical venture capital fund Forbion Capital Partners. NiTi declined to confirm the report.
NiTi's investors include Israeli and European funds Alice Ventures, Evergreen Venture Partners, Israel Healthcare Ventures Ltd., Kreos Capital, Millennium Material Technologies Fund, and Vitalife Life Sciences Venture. NiTi is a graduate of Meytav Technological Enterprises Innovation Center Ltd., a technology incubator owned by Capital Point Ltd. (TASE:CPTP).
Forbion manages €200 million. It has not before now invested in Israeli companies, but its portfolio includes US life sciences companies in which Israel's Giza Venture Capital has also invested: Circulite Inc., Mitralign Inc., and Pathway Medical Technologies Inc.
NiTi has developed a new method of staple-free tissue reconnection for gastrointestinal surgery. The company's leading products reattach the colon after surgery to remove diseased tissue. The devices are inserted into the colon through a natural opening, attached to the sides of the tissue, and pressure is applied to the area. The products are made from a nickel-titanium alloy, Nitinol, which has shape memory properties. The products are placed in cold water prior to surgery; after implantation, the patient's body heat causes the Nitinol to return to its original shape, encouraging the natural surgical connection of the two parts of the bowel.
In contrast to staples, NiTi's products do not perforate the bowel, but use intestinal pressure to heal the wound in a natural process.
NiTi has obtained US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and EU CE Mark certification for its products, and already has sales in the US, Europe, and the Far East. The products have been successfully implanted in more than 1,000 patients.
NiTi was founded by its CSO, Dr. Leonid Monassevitch, formerly a senior researcher of shape memory alloys at the Siberian Institute of Physics and Technology. NiTi president and CEO Itay Itzhaky was CEO of ColBar, which was sold three years ago to Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) for $159 million.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 12, 2009
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