Israeli company Magenta Medical has announced the completion of a $55 million financing round led by OrbiMed Advisors and with the participation of previous investors NEA, Pitango and Alive.
Magenta has developed a miniaturized catheter-mounted axial flow-pump for mechanical circulatory support of the left ventricle, based on Magenta’s core technology of a self-expanding impeller and pump head. The self-expanding impeller is comprised of a thin memory-shape metallic frame and a soft, flexible material that forms the body of the blades.
Magenta Medical was founded in 2012 by CMO Prof. Ehud Schwammenthal and CTO Dr. Yosi Tuva, who had previously founded heart valve developer Ventor, which was sold to Medtronic in 2009 for $350 million. Magenta's CEO is Dr. David Israeli, a former senior executive at Medtronic and Pitango, which invested in the company. Magwenta has raised $100 million to date.
Dr. Israel told "Globes" that Magenta has changed its focus in recent years but not its technology - only the use it is aiming for. The pump was first developed to treat heart failure and was intended to be implanted in the renal veins to regulate blood pressure and evacuate salts and fluids - an improved replacement for diuretic drugs that are the standard treatment for heart failure, but they are not always helpful, and may have side effects. This product was already advanced, so with the company's previous fundraising, it believed it could get the product approved without additional fundraising.
The reason for the change was the realization that the road to approval was longer than it seemed at first, because there is no such product on the market, and it was necessary to develop the protocol from start to finish, together with the FDA, and then overcome another hurdle of proving the economic value of the product to obtain insurance indemnity. So even though the product worked well, and despite (or rather because) there being no similar solutions on the market, the road looked too long and uncertain.
Meanwhile, another area began to capture the company's attention: using a coronary artery pump to support patients arriving at the hospital with acute heart failure or undergoing high-risk interventional catheterization. The pump supports the heart's activity and can even replace it until it recovers.
The field called Temporary Mechanical Circulatory Support has been growing in recent years led by Johnson & Johnson unit Abiomed. Magenta believes that as other products have already trod the regulatory path and then received insurance indemnity, the way forward in this sector is clearer while there remains plenty of room in the market for their distinct product.
The product has undergone trials with 15 patients in Georgia and is now undergoing a trial with 15 more patients in the US.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on May 3, 2023.
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