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Procyrion, Inc., announced on July 9th 2019 that they have completed a $30 million U.S. funding from Bluebird Ventures. Procyrion is developing its Aortix™ system, which is a percutaneous blood pump initially targeted for treating patients with heart failure and progressing failure of the kidneys (cardiorenal syndrome). The investment will fund the company’s pilot study through the activities needed to support the submission of an FDA IDE application for its pivotal trial. So far, Procyrion has successfully raised over $59 million U.S. in funding.
“Of the more than 1 million patients per year in the U.S. admitted to the hospital with acute decompensated heart failure, 25–30% also have worsening renal function. These are typically the most difficult to treat patients with high mortality and rehospitalization rates. Today there is a major gap in effective therapies that are available to treat these critically ill patients, and as such, there is a significant opportunity to improve patient outcomes,” said Eric S. Fain, M.D., Procyrion’s president and chief executive officer. “The Aortix device is uniquely designed and positioned in the body to simultaneously decrease the workload of the heart and improve kidney function. These funds will allow us to make significant advances in our program, in particular, allowing us to assess the Aortix system’s ability to decongest cardiorenal patients in our pilot study.”
The device is impressively small (thinner than a pencil) and allows for a simple and quick insertion through a cath-lab procedure. Aortix™ offers a realistic treatment option for a large number of heart failure patients who are non-responders to medical therapy, but not in enough distress or concern to seriously consider highly invasive and expensive surgical interventions like heart transplantation or LVAD implants. Inserted into the descending thoracic aorta between the heart and renal arteries, Aortix is uniquely suited to treat cardiorenal patients. Aortix harnesses fluid entrainment to pump blood and increase total aortic velocity and flow without the need for a valve. The device disrupts the harmful cardiorenal cycle in two ways: by resting the heart by reducing afterload, resulting in increased cardiac output and decreased cardiac work; and downstream, it provides increased blood flow to the kidneys resulting in increased urine output to reduce overall fluid overload.
According to a series of reports published by iData Research, the cardiac surgery market is valued at over $5.1 billion. Cardiac surgery is a rapidly growing market with new technological innovations occurring constantly. As such, new segments arise and foster growth, such as the remote hemodynamic monitoring segment. Many segments in the cardiac surgery market are growing, some at a rapid rate. One of the fastest growing markets would be the transcatheter heart valve replacement segment. This segment is predicted to grow during the forecast period. Transcatheter heart valve replacement is growing due to the trend towards minimally invasive procedures. These devices are replacing the heart valves used in open heart surgery as the standard way of replacing heart valves.
“The Procyrion Aortix device provides an elegant solution for managing heart failure, a serious and difficult-to-treat problem,” said Jeff Bird, M.D., Ph.D., managing director of Bluebird Ventures. “We are excited to work with this experienced team as they begin clinical testing.”
For Further Information
More on the cardiac surgery and heart valve market can be found in a series of reports published by iData entitled the U.S. Market Report Suite for Cardiac Surgery.
