Massachusetts-based Augmenix is hoping it can make it to the U.S. market with the $10.8 million funding round it just closed, the company said this month.
The company expects to launch its SpaceOAR system "in earnest" next year, counting on a successful bid for FDA approval. The SpaceOAR hydrogel product helps separate the rectum from the prostate during radiation therapy, allowing physicians to use higher doses of radiation to attack cancerous cells while protecting healthy tissue.
The recent Series D round drew new investor Excelestar Ventures as well as multiple unnamed individuals. Existing investors CHV II, Catalyst Health Ventures and Sparta Group also helped support the round, Augmenix reported.
Meanwhile, the company also noted that radiotherapy systems maker and Augmenix investor Varian Medical (NYSE:VAR) passed on its limited-time option to acquire the startup.
"We feel the expiration of Varian’s option will enable us to maximize the value of Augmenix for all its shareholders, including Varian," Augmenix chairman Amar Sawhney said in prepared remarks. "With the addition of the Series D financing, we are well resourced to chart an independent path forward."
Sawhney is a serial entrepreneur who has managed to spin his novel hydrogel platform into a series of applications, including for brain, lung, cardiac and other surgeries, decreasing scarring and lowering radiation exposure to healthy tissue. Another Sawhney brainchild, Ocular Therapeutix, won FDA approval earlier this year for the ReSure sealant, which uses the hydrogel to help heal surgical wounds in the eye.
