Portfolio News
Morgenthaler And NEA Fund Moximed
VentureWire
Brian Gormley
26 January 2009
Morgenthaler Ventures and New Enterprise Associates are bankrolling a start-up led by Kevin Sidow, whose last company, St. Francis Medical Technologies Inc., was acquired by Kyphon Inc. for $525 million.
Morgenthaler and NEA co-led a Series A of an undisclosed amount for Moximed in April 2008, according to Henry A. Plain Jr., a Morgenthaler partner and member of the Moximed board. The company, which is developing a medical-device treatment for osteoarthritis, was formed in ExploraMed, an incubator in Mountain View, Calif., Plain said. The company spun out in the fourth quarter and is now based in Hayward, Calif., he said.
St. Francis Medical developed the X-Stop Interspinous Process Decompression system, the first interspinous process device for treating lumbar spinal stenosis to be approved in the U.S. Kyphon bought the Alameda, Calif., company for $525 million, plus $200 million in milestones, in January 2007. Kyphon itself was acquired by Medtronic Inc. in late 2007 for about $3.9 billion.
Morgenthaler and NEA were pleased to land Sidow, who was heavily recruited, Plain said. The company is not disclosing details about its technology, which was developed at ExploraMed, which has spawned several companies since forming in 1995, including Acclarent Inc., a venture-backed maker of a device treatment for chronic sinusitis, and TransVascular Inc., acquired by Medtronic in 2003. Sidow was not available for comment.
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, which affects 19 million U.S. adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The disease, characterized by a breakdown of articular cartilage, represents a large unmet clinical need, Plain said. Other venture-backed device makers targeting osteoarthritis include Carticept Medical Inc., an Alpharetta, Ga., company backed by NEA and Domain Associates, and Carbylan BioSurgery Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., whose backers include Alta Partners, InterWest Partners and Vivo Ventures.
In addition to Plain, the Moximed board also includes NEA General Partner Ryan Drant, NEA Special Partner John Nehra, and Joshua Makower, an NEA venture partner who is the company's chairman.
