InfraReDx Inc. raised an additional $10 million through the sale of convertible promissory notes, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, taking the Burlington, Mass.-based company’s total fundraising effort to nearly $100 million after more than a decade of operation.
A spokesman for the company told MassDevice that the firm wouldn’t be making any comment on the new round until CEO James Muller returned from presenting at the JP Morgan Healthcare Investors Conference in San Francisco this week.
InfraReDx, which launched in 1999, uses both ultrasound waves and near-infrared light to provide images of the coronary plaque believed to cause most heart attacks, aiming to help surgeons determine not only the shape of the plaque but its composition. The device is designed to help doctors assess the likelihood of further cardiovascular problems stemming from the plaque lining patients’ blood vessels.
Despite its success in raising money, InfraReDx has had difficulty winning reimbursement for its equipment from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, according to the New York Times. The system costs more than $157,000: $155,000 for a control unit and $2,400 for a single-use catheter. Company officials told the Times they had no expectations of profits before 2011 at the earliest and were burning up to $30,000 a day.
The firm raised $17 million in 2008, but has had to cut costs over the past year, including initiating layoffs during the spring of 2009. Sanderling Ventures of San Diego, which led the last round of financing, did not respond to calls seeking comment on this round.
In May, 2009,InfraReDx announced that a new generation of its product, an optical/acoustic imaging catheter, was used for the first time in patients undergoing angiography in the Netherlands.
