Cartilage implant developer CartiHeal Ltd. has expanded its financing round to $10 million from $5 million, after Elron Electronic Industries Ltd. (TASE: ELRN) joined Accelmed, the fund of Moshe (Mori) Arkin and Uri Geiger, and Access Medical Ventures, a US fund run by Israelis Limor Sandach, Dvir Keren, and Michael Tal. CartiHeal is a graduate of Peregrine Ventures Incentive Technological Incubator.
CartiHeal CEO Nir Altschuler, a biomedical engineer, founded the company in 2009, on the basis of a concept discovered at Ben Gurion University of the Negev. The company's preclinical trial of its articular cartilage and osteochondral defect repair product, Agili-C, was successful, and enough for EU CE Mark certification.
The Agili-C is made of two parts. The first combines aragonite, and the other is made of aragonite and hyaluronic acid is biocompatible and biodegradable. It does not include living tissue, in contrast to most innovative products under development. Companies in the cartilage reconstruction segment estimate the market at $3 billion a year, although most products are still only experimental.
Elron is the life sciences investment arm of Nochi Dankner-controlled IDB Holding Corp. Ltd. (TASE:IDBH). Elron CEO Ari Bronshtein said, "The investment in CartiHeal highlights our intention to continue to invest in medical devices companies that are based on breakthrough technologies."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 8, 2012
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