CorWave said today it was awarded approximately $3.5 million from France’s Worldwide Innovation Challenge, financed by BpiFrance’s Invest for The Future Program.
France-based CorWave said it received the funds to support continued development of its NovaPulse mini-invasive cardiac support pump designed to treat patients with chronic heart failure. The NovaPulse system utilizes undulating wave pumps to reproduce the operation of the human heart, the company said, and is intended to reduce complications associated with heart pumps.
“Our breakthrough technology overcomes a major technological obstacle. Until now, established players in cardiac support were unable to develop mini-invasive support devices, despite investing over a hundred million dollars, owing to the limits of existing technologies. The NovaPulse program paves the way for less invasive implantation, particularly for older patients who are often too weak for open heart surgery. The NovaPulse program is focused on the development of CorWave Nemo, a partial support device, complementary to CorWave Neptune, our full support LVAD. Nemo is a significant addition to our pipeline boosting the potential of the company,” CEO Louis de Lillers said in a press release.
The award was part of the second phase of the Worldwide Innovation Challenge, CorWave said. The company won awards from the first phase of the Worldwide Innovation Challenge in July 2016, and said it has since raised approximately $19 million (EU €15.5 million). CorWave said that last month it scaled up its operations and opened a pilot production unit in Clichy, France.
“Phase 1 of the Worldwide Innovation Challenge gave us the resources to identify and establish the technological proof-of-concept required to provide a new type of partial support, small enough to fit into an envelope the size of an implantable defibrillator. Phase 2 provides the funding to significantly increase the resources dedicated to the Nemo product. One year ago, the NovaPulse team had two people working full time, while today there are almost ten of us. With these new resources, we have been able to start product development and preclinical trials,” NovaPulse program technical advisor François Cornat said in a prepared statement.
In November 2016, CorWave said it raised $17.1 million in a Series B round of financing to support its novel left ventricular assist device.
