PARIS– Sofinnova Partners, a leading European life sciences venture capital firm based in Paris, London and Milan, announced today $5 million in seed funding for Endoron Medical (“Endoron”) to accelerate the development of the company’s endograft stapling solution for endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms (“AAA”). This is the third investment from its medtech acceleration fund, Sofinnova MD Start III.
Proceeds from the financing round will provide working capital to accelerate the full validation of the Endoron’s EndoStapling catheter-based solution. The funds will also be used to de-risk the regulatory strategy in preparation for the initial clinical experience, which will aim to establish safety, feasibility, and efficacy of the company’s patented endovascular suturing technology. In keeping with Sofinnova MD Start’s unique approach as a hands-on company builder, Cécile Dupont, Senior Associate and Program Director at Sofinnova Partners, will join the Endoron management team to bring greater operational and strategic support to accelerate the development of the company’s highly disruptive technology.
Lukas Guenther, M.D., Partner at Sofinnova Partners and a key member of the Sofinnova MD Start III Fund, commented: “More than 400,000 new patients in the U.S. and Europe are diagnosed with AAA disease every year, with 42% presenting complex anatomies. These patients undergo endovascular repair, but still face long-term complications such as endograft migration, endoleaks, neck dilation, and consequently reinterventions. Endoron’s innovative technology has the potential to radically change the way we perform endovascular repair in AAA patients today, and to dramatically reduce complications and reinterventions.”
Ronit Harpaz, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Endoron, said: “The Sofinnova MD Start team are the go-to investors in the medtech domain and are also seasoned medtech entrepreneurs who bring a wealth of operational experience working in high-growth companies like ours. With their support, I am confident we will quickly reach key clinical and regulatory inflection points as we work to bring our EndoStapling technology to the clinic.”
Founded in 2019, Endoron Medical builds on an invention from Prof. Ron Karmeli (Hadassah Hospital, Jerusalem), who is co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of the Company.
Endoron’s technology has been developed to overcome the challenges associated with the sealing and fixation of endografts used for the minimally invasive repair of AAA in challenging anatomies and to avoid highly invasive, high-mortality open surgery, which is still being used in that case.
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 is required to regain or maintain effective aneurysm exclusion.
The Sofinnova MD Start team is the only medtech accelerator in Europe and is comprised of seasoned medtech entrepreneurs and investors with extensive experience in high-growth early-stage medical device companies, and a successful track record of catalyzing innovative technology from conception to the clinic. The fund has made two other investments to date: Gradient Denervation Technologies and Moon Surgical.
