Endoron Medical, a MedTech company that develops a unique endograft stapling solution, announced they have secured $5 million in a seed round led by the Sofinnova Partners Acceleration Fund. It will be used to accelerate the development of the company’s technology for endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). This is Sofinnova’s MedTech acceleration fund’s first time investing in an Israeli company.
Isn't it just a small repair?
Repairing AAA’s is meant to be a minimally invasive procedure, but sadly, there are plenty of challenges associated with it, in particular, the sealing and fixation of endografts used in the repair. Typically, the success of endovascular treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms depends on the anatomy of the aorta, which often varies significantly from patient to patient. So, for example, short aortic necks, or angulated aortas, result in poor apposition of the stent-graft to the aortic wall, which unfortunately can lead to graft migration and leakage. What that really means is there can be increased intra-saccular pressure and risks of rupturing the aneurysm…Yikes! With 30-40 percent of patients having such complex aortic necks, many patients are at risk for such complications.
What Endoron Medical has developed is a technology, spearheaded by the company’s co-founder and Chief Medical Officer, Prof. Ron Karmeli of Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, that is able to overcome the challenges associated with the sealing and fixation of endografts of AAA repairs in more complex anatomies. Often, as an alternative, highly invasive and high-mortality open surgeries are performed, so Endoron’s technology is helping many patients avoid such risky procedures.
How it works
The Endoron solution is meant to secure an endograft's fixation and to improve sealing mechanisms. In addition, the stapling mechanisms developed by Endoron can be used to repair endovascular grafts that have migrated away from the implant site and have developed endoleaks. In such cases, augmented fixation and sealing are required to regain or maintain effective aneurysm exclusion. Essentially, their technology mimics the reliable hand-sewn suturing technique from open surgery, evenly distributing staples around the circumference of the aorta, to create a leak and migration-free anastomosis.
The funds from this round will allow the company to accelerate the full validation of Endoron’s EndoStapling catheter-based solution and will be used to de-risk the regulatory strategy in preparation for the initial clinical experience, which will aim to validate the safety, feasibility, and efficacy of the company’s patented endovascular suturing technology.
Ronit Harpez, co-founder and CEO of Endoron said, “With the support of Sofinnova MD Start team, seasoned MedTech entrepreneurs and the go-to investors in the MedTech domain, I am confident we will quickly reach key clinical and regulatory inflection points as we work to bring our EndoStapling technology to the clinic. Their presence in Israel is good for the entire ecosystem, which continues to grow at a consistent rate. Research and development efforts in Israel are coming with ground-breaking solutions and the connection of international funds to the local Israeli arena strengthens the entire industry."
The Sofinnova MD Start team is the only MedTech accelerator in Europe and is composed of seasoned MedTech entrepreneurs and investors with extensive experience in high-growth early-stage medical device companies. Sofinnova Partners is a leading European venture capital firm in life sciences, specializing in healthcare and sustainability, and has over €2.5 billion under their management. This is the first time their MedTech acceleration fund is investing in an Israeli company, which hopefully may pave the way for other investments of the same nature.
Endoron was founded in 2019 by Ronit Harpaz, former CEO of Bendit Technologies, Prof. Ron Carmeli, a world-renowned vascular surgeon, and Eyal Teichman, a mechanical engineer with over 30 years of experience in research and development in the field. They are in their seed funding stage and have raised a total of $5 million.
