Pluromed Inc. raised $1.1 million, nearly a third of its $3.9 million Series C goal, from a group of 16 un-named investors.
The Woburn, Mass.-based company has netted nearly $8.3 million so far, about $2.5 million from its Series A round and $4 million and $741,000 from two Series B tranches, according to filings with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission.
Pluromed has also had some luck in landing funding from other sources. The company won a $500,000 “accelerator” loan from the Mass. Life Sciences Center a year ago.
The company is developing hydrogel products for a few applications. Its Backstop gel plug won 510(k) clearance from the Food & Drug Administration in September 2009; a month later, Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE:BSX) acquired the rights to market the product worldwide. It’s used during lithotripsy kidney stone treatments that use laser or other energy sources to break up the stones. Backstop uses Pluromed’s Rapid Transition Polymers, which are liquid at low temperatures but gel at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. During the lithotripsy, the gel forms a plug above the stones, preventing them from moving during the procedure. Once they’re broken up, saline is used to dissolve the plug.
Pluromed’s latest funding round was an equity offering, according to an SEC filing. Although the filing didn’t name any of the 16 participants in the round, it listed Pluromed directors John Barberich, of Danish investment firm Nordic Biotech; George Holbrook, the managing partner of venture capital firm Bradley Resources Co. LLC; HydroCision Inc. president and CEO Donald Freeman; and Pluromed co-founder Alexander Schwarz, the former research director for BioSphere Medical Inc.
