Portfolio News
Spiration Raises $18.5 Million More From Its Investors
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Joseph Tartakoff
26 March 2008
Spiration Inc., a Redmond-based company that has developed a device to help patients with emphysema, said Tuesday it had raised $18.5 million in additional funding from existing investors.
The company said it would use the money to commercialize its IBV Valve System in Europe, where it has been approved by regulatory officials, and to fund an ongoing trial in the United States that, if successful, could lead to the product's approval for use in patients here.
The IBV Valve System is an umbrella-shaped valve that is inserted into a patient's lungs in order to redirect air flow from diseased portions of the lung into healthier areas.
"You're then allowing the rest of the lung to take over and in some ways compensate for that loss of tissue," said Spiration CEO Rick Shea, who said that in a study of 91 patients more than half the patients responded in a "clinically meaningful way." He cautioned that the study did not include a control group.
"It could mean something as simple as a patient now has more energy than they had prior to the therapy," he said. "In some cases they reduced the amount of supplemental oxygen they needed."
Shea said the company was in discussions with potential partners to distribute the valve system in Europe. Spiration will manufacture the device in Redmond and then ship it to the partner for distribution.
He said that the company hoped to conclude those discussions "over the next month or so" to commercialize the system in Europe by the end of the year.
The company also is conducting a pivotal study of the device in about 300 patients in the United States. Enrollment should be completed within the next 12 months.
Several years ago, Spiration had two products - the IBV Valve System and the VALR Surgical System - but the company decided to focus on the valve system because the regulatory pathway was clearer, Shea said.
"In retrospect, we made the right decision," Shea said.
With the new money, Spiration will have raised more than $97 million from investors since it was founded in 1999. The most recent round of financing was led by Versant Ventures. Olympus Medical Systems Corp., New Enterprise Associates, New Leaf Venture Partners, InterWest Partners, Investor Growth Capital and Three Arch Partners also invested.
Several other companies are developing devices similar to the IBV Valve System. Two of them, Emphasys Medical of Redwood City, Calif., and Broncus Technologies Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., filed for initial public offerings last fall.