Sequana Medical adds $9m for Alfapump implantable pump

Sequana Medical said today that it added $9.3 million to the $26 million Series C round it raised last year, as it readies for a U.S. clinical trial of its Alfapump implantable pump.

Zurich-based Sequana said existing backers NeoMed Management, VI Partners, Biomed Invest, Capricorn Health-tech Fund, Entrepreneurs Fund and Life Science Partners put up $5.5 million. New investors Salus Partners and Quest for Growth put in another $3.8 million, the company said.

Sequana won CE Mark approval in the European Union in 2011 for the Alfapump, a fully implantable pump designed to continuously remove excess abdominal fluid in patients suffering from liver disease. Today the company said it plans to use the proceeds from the Series C extension to expand the CE Mark indication for heart disease and pursue U.S. approval.

“This latest financing represents an important next step for Sequana Medical and we thank both our current investors as well as new participants, Salus Partners and Quest for Growth, for their endorsement of the Company’s potential,” CEO Noel Johnson said in prepared remarks. “While revenues generated from sales of Sequana Medical’s Alfapump system, indicated for patients with late-stage liver disease and certain cancers, are being reinvested into further expansion in CE-Mark territories, the funds raised from the Series C extension round will allow us to expedite planned clinical trials in the U.S. and to investigate applications for the technology in heart disease.”

Sequana pulled in $26.2 million in the Series C round in April 2014. The Alfapump is designed to transfer fluid from the abdomen to the bladder, where it is naturally excreted, as an alternative to large-volume paracentesis.