Medical technology startup NeuroTronik has raised $13.1 million dollars in series A capital, the company announced last week.
The investors, led by Hatteras Venture Partners of Durham, NC, also included Synergy Life Science Partners, Mountain Group Capital, and Lord Baltimore Capital.
The company is seeking to develop and bring a new technology to market that would help physicians treat patients who are hospitalized for symptoms related to acute heart failure.
Acute Heart Failure Syndrome (AHFS) is the leading cause of older-adult hospitalizations around the developed world, and accounts for 1.2 million hospital admissions per year in the United States alone.
Around 25 percent of patients who are hospitalized for acute heart failure return within 30 days of discharge. Recurring heart failure symptoms is one of the main reasons for these readmissions.
Currently physicians treat the disease by using a combination of pharmacological drugs. NeuroTronik's new device is intended to help improve on these existing treatments by stimulating the heart with electric pulses and improving pumping effectiveness.
"We think we're going to complement drug therapy in a very productive way," NeuroTronik CEO Fred McCoy told DOTmed News.
McCoy is also the vice chairman of Synecor, and a former executive at Eli Lilly & Co.
With its device, the company hopes to shorten hospital stays and reduce hospital readmissions.
The company is in the early stages of product development, and early studies of the device look encouraging, according to the company.
Another company, Israeli firm Enopace Biomedical, is developing a similar neuromodulation device, and raised $5 million from Sorin in February.
NeuroTronik aims to get its CE mark in four years and FDA approval in six.
