Israeli Medical Device Startup Filterlex Raises $3M For Its Embolic Protection Device

Filterlex Medical, an Israeli startup developing a next-generation embolic protection device, announced last week they have completed a Series funding round raising a total of $3 million in capital.

The Yokneam-based company has developed the Captis embolic protection device that reduces the risk of stroke and other complications during catheter-based structural heart procedures.

Captis has won the best innovation award at the EuroPCR 2019 innovation competition in Paris and was awarded a grant of $200,000 by the Jon DeHaan Foundation, an organization which supports individuals and companies focused on developments in cardiovascular medicine.

Captis is a full-body embolic protection device that works by securing to the aorta and deflecting, capturing and removing embolic particles. Particles that enter the blood flow during catheter-based heart procedures can cause a variety of complications–those that reach the brain can cause neurological deficiencies and even stroke, while those that reach distal organs can result in kidney injury and ischemia.

The device is unique because it requires no additional arterial access and does not interfere with the procedure workflow, according to the statement. 

“Out of 80 competing projects, only 6 innovations were selected for the final competition,” Sigal Eli, founder, inventor, and CEO of Filterlex Medical, said. “The international recognition provided will allow us to present our product to the international cardiologists and we believe it will become [a] must-have best-in-class device to benefit patients undergoing left-heart procedures.”

The EuroPCR conference, hosted in France by the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (EAPCI) is a course in Interventional Cardiovascular Medicine with over 11 thousand participants from around the world. 

Filterlex Medical was founded in June 2016 at the Alon MedTech Ventures incubator and began operating independently in August 2018.