According to the Medicine Intelligence Data Investment Pattern Database, Capstan Medical, a robotics company specializing in interventional valve surgery, recently announced the successful completion of its Series C financing, raising a total of $110 million (contract amount of RMB 800 million). This round of financing is led by Eclipse, with existing investors such as Yu Galaxy and Intuitive Ventures participating, while introducing new investor Gideon Strategic Partners.

It is reported that the funds raised in this round are intended to be used to bring its robot assisted minimally invasive solution to the market to solve heart valve diseases. In addition, according to the Pharmaceutical Intelligence Data Investment Pattern Database, Capstan Medical has completed two rounds of financing, with the last round being the B-round financing completed on August 9, 2023, raising a total of 31.4 million US dollars (contract 230 million RMB).

Valve disease (VHD) is a structural heart disease characterized by abnormal morphology and structure of single or multiple valves, and is the leading cause of cardiovascular disease and death worldwide. However, traditional heart valve surgery still has high invasiveness and long recovery time, and minimally invasive intervention therapy will become the inevitable path for the treatment of valve disease. And currently, there are no FDA approved options for transcatheter mitral or tricuspid valve replacement, and heart valve replacement still largely relies on manual labor.

Based on this background, Capstan Medical has set its sights on the field of VHD and is committed to developing alternative methods for replacing diseased mitral and tricuspid valves with less trauma than open chest surgery.

Capstan Medical was founded in 2020 and incubated by Occam Labs, focusing on developing structural cardiac surgical robot platforms and catheter delivered cardiac implants for mitral and tricuspid valve replacement. The company is a startup in the field of structural heart instruments and robots, led by former executives Dan Wallace and Maggie Nixon. Although it is still young in terms of establishment time, its team is already very mature.

Its founder and Chief Technology Officer Dan Wallace has years of collective experience in startups and commercial medical technology, and his resume is also impressive. He has worked for well-known surgical robotics and valve companies such as Intuitive Surgical, Hansen Medical, Auris Health (acquired by Johnson&Johnson), Cephea Valve Technologies (acquired by Abbott), etc.

Another founder and CEO, Maggie Nixon, is also a veteran in the medical field with over 20 years of work experience in Intuitive Surgical.

Currently, Capstan Medical is developing a new generation of heart valve implants and pioneering a transcatheter robotic delivery platform, which is a solution for treating mitral and tricuspid valve diseases through catheterization while the heart is beating.

This product uses minimally invasive methods to insert a catheter into the patient's heart, and then operates a robotic delivery platform to accurately position the heart valve implant at the location of the original valve that needs to be replaced or repaired. During the process, the position and angle of the catheter can be monitored and adjusted in real-time to adapt to different anatomical structures, lesion types, and pathological conditions.

Moreover, the product provides patients with a less invasive alternative solution while ensuring precise placement of heart valve implants, significantly reducing patient recovery time and minimizing the risk of complications. Transcatheter therapy can treat heart valve disease through a small incision in the groin, without the need to stop the heartbeat or open the chest as required by open heart surgery. This technology can shorten the recovery time of patients from several months to several weeks, and even the most severe patients can undergo such surgery.

When announcing the details of this financing, Maggie Nixon also shared some of the latest developments in surgical robot technology. She stated that Capstan Medical has established a robot architecture and catheter motion range, enabling doctors to accurately reach the target position of the heart to optimize the placement of implants. The company is committed to making devices easier for clinical doctors to operate, thus introducing new coordinated motion control functions that replace simple button operations and instead use more advanced coordination algorithms.

Maggie Nixon also stated that mitral valve replacement surgery (FIM) is expected to be initiated early next year, and tricuspid valve replacement surgery (FIM) will also be initiated a few months later in the same year. Moreover, it is expected that the IDE study for mitral valve replacement surgery will commence in 2026, and a registration application will be submitted to the FDA as early as 2028.

Source: https://news.yaozh.com/archive/44683.html