Galway medical devices start-up AuriGen Medical has launched a €750,000 crowdfunding campaign to help fund the clinical trials of its innovative heart implant.
The NUI Galway-based company, founded in 2017, has developed a heart implant designed to treat the stroke and arrhythmia risk associated with atrial fibrillation. The minimally invasive implant aims to revolutionise the management of millions of chronic heart disease patients.
AuriGen Medical co-founder and CEO Dr John Thompson said current approaches to treating heart failure and atrial fibrillation require multiple expensive devices and procedures.
“Despite much focus and advancement on the treatment of chronic heart disease, it still kills more Europeans than cancer,” he said.
“Atrial fibrillation is a quivering or irregular heartbeat (an arrhythmia) that can lead to blood clots, stroke and heart failure.”
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He explained that the elevated stroke risk can be managed by closing the left atrial appendage, a small pouch within the heart. The left atrial appendage is the source of 90% of atrial fibrillation blood clots, leading to a very high stroke risk.
“Devices exist to filter out these blood clots, reducing stroke risk. However, implantation of these devices is challenging because of sharp fixed barbs used to hold the device in the heart, which can tear the heart wall causing significant injury.
“The devices also offer no treatment for arrhythmia or heart failure, and no ability to monitor patients at home post procedure.”
To address these challenges, AuriGen Medical has created the first device to integrate stroke prevention, heart failure monitoring and arrhythmia management in a single 30-minute day case procedure.
This patient data is transferred live from their handheld receiver to the cloud which is instantly accessible by their doctor.
AuriGen aims to provide governments and private healthcare insurers with an alternative to the existing expensive multi-procedure therapies which are currently required to treat challenging heart failure/arrhythmia patients.
Grant funding
Aurigen Medical says it has been awarded EU Horizon 2020 grants worth €5.5m which have been drawn down. The company was also part of a Disruptive Technology Innovation Funding award worth €5.9m that involved NUIG that has also been drawn down.
Aurigen Medical Ltd’s accounts filing for 2020 discloses ‘other income’ of €1.62m and outgoings of €1.74m. Balance sheet equity invested in December 2020 was €800,000 and creditors of €1.4m included deferred grant income of €790,000 and €360,000 in grant funds held for grant partners.
The Directors’ Report, signed off in January 2022, expressed the belief that "significant Series A investor funding" would be raised in Q1 2022, though the directors cautioned that the timing was uncertain and outside the company’s control.
in August 2022, the company received €1m in taxpayer investment from the Western Development Commission and €500,000 in taxpayer funding from Enterprise Ireland.
Spark Crowdfunding CEO Chris Burge said AuriGen’s cardiac implant devices address the significant unmet medical needs of patients with heart failure and atrial fibrillation.
“The minimum investment is just €100 and as an EIIS qualifying company Irish investors are essentially accessing a Venture Capital quality investment at a 40% discount to the price paid by professional investors,” said Burge
Photo: AuriGen's cofounder and CTO Tony O'Halloran with Leo Varadkar
