ReShape Medical, the medical device maker developing a balloon system to combat obesity has raised nearly $7 million through a debt financing round, according to regulatory filings.
The San Clemente, Calif.-based company, which closed its most recent funding round earlier this month, raised a total of $6.75 million through existing internal investors, according to filings with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission. ReShape Medical has now raised more than $46.5 million since its inception.
The ReShape Duo is a dual balloon system designed to be inserted endoscopically and remain in the stomach for 6 months. The balloon takes up space in the stomach and helps patients feel full. While the stomach-filling balloons are in place, patients are counseled by healthcare professionals on nutrition, exercise and behavior modification to help them develop a healthier lifestyle, according to ReShape.
The company filed for pre-market approval from the FDA in the summer of 2014 and last fall ReShape released results from its Reduce US pivotal trial that it said showed patients with the device lost 2.3 times more weight than patients using just diet and exercise.
The Duo, which has been available comercially in Europe since 2007, is a non-reimbursed cash procedure.
ReShape Medical’s CEO Richard Thomspon recently told MassDevice.com that the company’s system was an alternative to more invasive surgical procedures.
"What’s particularly different about our type of therapy is there’s a feedback mechanism going on here. The patient eats a small meal, feels full, loses weight. The next day they eat a small meal, they feel full, they lose weight," he saud, "Using behavior modification therapy and diet and exercise counseling you can really cement that relationship, so that the patient gets used to this idea that, "Yeah, guess what? If I eat small meals, I will lose weight. After the balloon is out, if I continue to eat small meals like I’ve been doing for the last 6 months when the balloon is in, I can keep that weight off."