Israeli medical device company CritiSense, which has developed a new device for monitoring oxygen levels at the tissue level for patients undergoing surgery or in intensive care units, has closed a financing round, in which it raised $1.2 million. The round was led by US venture capital firm Bridge Investment Fund LP of Cleveland, Ohio. Also participating were Clarion Group CEO Morton Cohen and the company’s existing shareholders, Pontifax Ltd., and Docor International BV. One of CritiSense’s other shareholders is Zeev Bronfeld, one of the founders and owners of Biomedix Incubator Ltd. (TASE:BMDX.M) and Biocell (TASE: BCEL).
CritiSense was founded in 2004 on the basis of the assets of an earlier company named Vital Medical. The company’s device, the Critiview, was developed by the company’s co-founder and chief scientist, Professor Avraham Mayevsky, formerly head of the department of Department of Life Sciences and Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Bar Ilan University, where he established a center for tissue physiology. It provides continuous, real-time multi-parametric physiological data at the tissue and cellular level, by monitoring the mitochondrial function and the microcirculatory blood flow and oxygen saturation, by way of tissue titration therapy with an optical sensor.
The company is set to begin clinical trials in 2007, although it previously told “Globes” that trials would begin in 2006, with a view to securing US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval by the end of the year. It is not, however, the first medical device company whose FDA approval process takes longer than expected and it probably won’t be the last one.
CritiSense’s new shareholder is no less interesting than the company itself. Bridge Investment was founded in Cleveland, and its model is to invest primarily in early stage Israeli medical device companies that are backed by venture capital, and are looking to establish a presence in Northeast Ohio.
Bridge Investment currently has $6 million for investment, but it hopes to raise a further $15 million in the near future. It is managed in Ohio by former AOL business development manager Michael Goldberg, and in Israel by former Rad-Bio Med founder, and Bank Leumi chief technology investment officer Avshalom Horan, and Tene Investments partner Dr. Ariel Halperin. The fund’s investors include Forest City Enterprises, Key Bank, National City Bank, and the Mt. Sinai, Myers and Maltz Family Foundations.
Avshalom Horan said, ”CritiSense didn’t approach us because of our money. Rather, it was interested in taking advantage of Bridge’s relationships with the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals of Cleveland and BioEnterprise Corp, a non-profit organization that assists Northern Ohio healthcare companies.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on June 21, 2006
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