Medical device start-up SMT Research and Development Ltd. has raised $10.5 million in a financing round led by OrbiMed Advisors LLC. SMT has developed an embolic protection device - a filter - to protect the brain from clots during minimally invasive procedures, such as Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) procedures.
Other Israeli start-ups operate in the same field, including Neurosonix Ltd. and Gardia Medical Ltd., whose Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) IPO failed a couple of weeks ago.
Orbimed Israel senior managing director Dr. Nissim Darvish said, "The difference between SMT and the other companies in the field is that its product blocks all three arteries going to the brain, whereas the other products only block one or two blood vessels."
Orbimed Advisors, not Orbimed Israel, made the investment in SMT. However, Orbimed Israel, run by Darvish, Anat Naschitz, and Erez Chimovits, will soon announce the closing of its first fund as part of the government biomed funds.
Orbimed has previously invested in Israeli companies Galsys Electronics Ltd., superDimension Inc., and Given Imaging Ltd. (Nasdaq: GIVN; TASE: GIVN), and Predix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (which merged with Epix Pharmaceuticals Inc. and later closed.
SMT CEO Dr. Dov Shimon founded the company as Sagax. It was later acquired by Canadian company MIV Therapeutics Inc. (Bulletin Board: MIVI) for $2.2 million, but Shimon bought the company back in 2007.
Shimon said, "TAVI is truly one of the most exciting areas of medicine today, allowing patients suffering from life-threatening aortic valve stenosis to receive new, functional heart valves via minimally invasive techniques, thereby replacing traumatic open heart surgery. Current TAVI devices are working well, but despite efforts to refine the technique, we continue to see post-procedure complications associated with cerebral embolism resulting in stroke and other ischemic events."
Darvish added, "This is a growth field, but various studies show that people who underwent embolic protection during surgery or minimally invasive procedures subsequently suffered from brain problems apparently caused by clots. We've known SMT for several years. We've monitored its incarnations, and its product is very clever."
Orbimed principal Dr. David Bonita said, "We like the fact that the SMT device was designed from the perspective of a highly-experienced surgeon who understands the anatomy of the aortic arch and the variability of arteries that branch off to deliver blood to the brain and central nervous system."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 3, 2011
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