Bigfoot Biomedical, which is developing a "bionic pancreas," said it raised $3 million from 8 unnamed investors.
Although it’s in stealth mode, Bigfoot executives have said they’d like to complete product development by 2016. The company’s executives include Bryan Mazlish, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation CEO Jeffrey Brewer and Jon Brilliant, the former CFO of Welldoc, according to a regulatory filing.
Last year, Mazlish made headlines by creating a "bionic pancreas" to treat Type I diabetes in his wife and son. In late 2014 Bryan and investors created Bigfoot Biomedical, named after a Wired article referred to Mazlish as "bigfoot."
Mazlish’s wife, Dr. Sarah Kimball, admitted in an interview with Healthline that she and her son are using the "homebrew artificial pancreas" Mazlish created. The system uses an insulin pump and a Dexcom (NSDQ:DXCM) insulin monitor, wireless communication and an algorithm to predict and deliver appropriate insulin doses.
"By close of 2015, we’d like to see ourselves deep into our product development with a strong collaboration with FDA on how we turn our vision into a commercial product. A home run for 2016 would be to complete our product development and be well on our way to completing a pivotal trial for FDA submission," Bigfoot executives said in an interview with DiaTribe.
Bigfoot hopes to raise another $1 million, according to the filing.