Pavmed files for $23m IPO

The entrepreneurs behind a quartet of medical device companies is betting their formula can cut down on the time and cost of getting medtech to market with a $23 million initial public offering.

Pavmed is developing devices in 5 areas, according to its IPO registration: The PortIO long-term implantable vascular access device; the Caldus line disposable tissue ablation devices, including renal denervation for hypertension; the CarpX percutaneous device to treat carpal tunnel syndrome; the NextCath self-anchoring short-term catheter; and the NextFlo disposable infusion pump.

The founders of Pavmed – Drs. Lishan Aklog and Brian deGuzman and Michael Glennon – were also behind Pavilion Medical Innovations, a medical device incubator built around a faster, low-cost development plan. Pavilion spun out Vortex Medical, acquired for $55 million in 2012 by AngioDynamics (NSDQ:ANGO), and Saphena Medical, which in March raised a $1.3 million round for its device to harvest veins for coronary artery bypass grafting.

Pavilion also created Kaleidoscope Medical, which is developing a reversible inferior vena cava filter, and Cruzar Medsystems and its Houdini peripheral chronic total occlusion device. All 4 companies raised just $1.5 million to $3.5 million and "rapidly advance their products," according to the SEC filing. In the case of Vortex Medical, the AngioVac system won 510(k) clearance from the FDA 16 months after its founding. Saphena won 510(k) clearance for VenaPax in 18 months and has had it on the market since last October, according to the filing.

Aklog, deGuzman and Glennon are betting that their formula for commercializing single-product companies can be applied to a company making multiple devices, dramatically slashing the estimated $30 million and 5 years it typically takes to get to market, they said in the filing.

"We believe that medical devices have the potential to move from concept to commercialization much more rapidly and with significantly less capital investment," according to the filing. "Pavmed was created to adapt this model to a multi-product company with access to public capital markets. We believe this model allows us to conceive, develop and commercialize our pipeline of medical device products using significantly less capital and time than a typical medical device company."