Newswise — KALAMAZOO, Mich., Feb. 4, 2014 -- Ablative Solutions, Inc., a privately-held clinical stage company headquartered in Kalamazoo, MI, with offices in Menlo Park, CA, announced today that it has completed a Series B Preferred Stock financing, totaling approximately $9.5 million (including the conversion of the bridge financing completed in 2013), to fund its unique technology platform for renal denervation. The round was led by BioStar Ventures and Michigan Accelerator Fund, and included participation by the founders and multiple angel investors. "The Company has made tremendous progress in the two years since its inception with a unique approach to renal denervation, and has done so with great capital efficiency," affirmed Dale Grogan of Michigan Accelerator Fund, who was elected to the Company's Board of Directors upon closing of the financing.
Ablative Solutions (ASI) has developed a unique device, the Peregrine System, which delivers a chemical treatment to the outer layer of the renal artery, where the sympathetic nerves reside, with great precision. This streamlined procedure, which ASI calls PeriVascular Renal Denervation (PVRD), has demonstrated highly effective denervation in pre-clinical studies, with no collateral damage to the artery. The Company is now engaged in early clinical evaluations.
The ASI team believes strongly that there is value in interrupting signals from overactive sympathetic nerves, based on extensive favorable clinical data from open surgical denervation as well as from early endovascular renal denervation experience. The Company is confident that by combining the right nerve pathway interruption with a selection of carefully targeted patients, renal denervation will deliver clinical value to patients with drug-refractory hypertension.
"ASI's technology is unique and we believe will overcome some of the shortcomings that have been seen recently in RF-based renal denervation devices," said Steven Almany, MD, Medical Director at BioStar Ventures and an Interventional Cardiologist at Beaumont Health Systems.
"We are pleased with the strong vote of confidence from our investors supporting our pursuit of this novel non-energy approach to denervation," remarked Tim Fischell, MD, the Company's CEO. "We believe that the lessons from clinical experience to date will advance the field, deepening the understanding of the science behind neuromodulation, and, in the end, patients will benefit from improvements in technology and technique."
ASI was founded by two recognized medical device entrepreneurs, Tim Fischell, MD, and David Fischell, PhD, and is led by Vartan Ghazarossian, PhD, its President, who has extensive executive experience in both biopharmaceutical and medical device companies. Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP served as legal advisor to ASI for the transaction.
This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in this offering. There will not be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offering, sale or solicitation would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.
Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains certain "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Information in this press release, which is not historical, is forward-looking and involves a number of risks and uncertainties. Investors are cautioned not to put any undue reliance on any forward-looking statement. ASI's actual results may differ materially from ASI's historical results of operations and those discussed in the forward-looking statements for various reasons, including, but not limited to ASI's ability to carry out its business plan, successful development and commercial acceptance of its products, ability to fund development necessary for existing products and for the pursuit of new product opportunities, ability to hire required personnel, the risk of whether products result from development activities, protection of ASI's intellectual property portfolio, the risk associated with obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals, the ability to obtain foreign regulatory approvals for products and to establish marketing arrangements in countries where approval is obtained, and other potential factors.
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