Neuraptive Therapeutics said yesterday that it raised $11.5 million in a Series A round of equity financing to support its flagship AxoFuse nerve repair system through clinical trials and to expand operations.
The round was led by private equity firm New Rhein Healthcare Investors, the Lafayette, Colo.-based company said.
The AxoFuse system is a novel therapeutic product intended for use in standard nerve repair surgery to improve outcomes for patients with peripheral nerve injuries, the company said. Neuraptive said that preclinical studies of the device indicate that it can reduce recovery time and improve stable recovery of function when compared to standard nerve repair and natural regeneration.
“AxoFuse has the potential to dramatically improve outcomes for patients over today’s standard of care. By reconnecting a substantial proportion of severed axons, we expect AxoFuse to be able to abrogate degeneration and accompanying limb atrophy. This should lead to significantly improved speed and quality of recovery, which will be of great benefit to patients,” co-founder & CEO David Jackson said in a press release.
The company went on to say that it believes that the AxoFuse device could be used to improve surgical repair of peripheral nerves severed during injury and in connecting nerves of several different types during surgical reconstruction. Neuraptive added that it plans to launch clinical trials of the device next year.
“This is the first product that maintains the neural network downstream of a peripheral nerve injury. Doing so is expected to enable significantly faster recovery with better functional outcomes for the patient. We believe this product will change the standard of care in the treatment of peripheral nerve injuries and has broad applicability in surgical reconstructions involving nerves,” co-founder & board director Gino DiSciullo said in a prepared statement.
