Galway-based firm, Versono Medical has raised €6.7m in funding to help bring their Fastwire intravascular medical device to market.
The product uses ultrasonic technology to break through complex blockages in patients with Critical Limb Ischemia (CLI) as the flexible wire follows the curvature of arteries, carrying ultrasonic waves to the tip of the wire which then crosses through calcified lesions allowing blood flow to be restored in the affected limb.
The device aims to reduce invasive surgeries and avoid amputations, and in some cases death.
This was the second round of funding for Versono Medical, and the board were pleased to announce that they were oversubscribed.
Company chairman John O'Shaughnessy said: "We are both delighted and encouraged by the level of enthusiasm and support from our investor base. It is truly exciting times for Versono as we move forward towards our clinical trials, and continue to build and develop the team, to advance our product development activities."
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The company estimates that more than 230 million people, aged 25 or older, are living with Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD), with that number expected to double by 2030.
CLI is the most severe and advanced form of PAD, mostly affecting the lower extremities, legs and feet. Current treatments seek to re-establish blood flow to the affected area but CLI can lead to calcified tissue and chronic blockages which require technically difficult procedures for which there is no guarantee of success.
There are approximately 350,000 amputations in the US and EU every year as a result of CLI. Some 15% of all cases of CLI require amputation and 37% open surgery.
The four main risk factors for PAD include smoking, hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol, all conditions which have been on the rise since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and the sedentary lives brought about by lockdown.
Versono CEO Finbar Dolan said: "Covid highlighted the extent of the vulnerability of patients with diabetes to other comorbidities. It also highlighted how healthcare systems can be overwhelmed. The fallout from a health perspective, from PAD, is enormous.
"The outcomes for patients eventually diagnosed with CLI is similar to many diagnosed with an aggressive cancer.
"Fastwire is compact and fits on a shelf. Rival devices have consoles that are much larger and require more staff with specialised training to run them. Fastwire is designed to assist physicians help more patients and enable safer, more successful and speedier, minimally invasive treatment of the most difficult lower limb lesions or blockages."
The company, which is based in Parkmore West in Galway now employs 22 staff in full and part-time roles and claims to have advanced its technology to meet the needs of the global vascular market.
Speaking during her visit, Minister Hildegarde Naughton said: “It is very exciting to see the emergence of new disruptive vascular device technology designed and built in Galway, one of the world’s leading centres of excellence in MedTech."
