Israeli Medical Device Startup CartiHeal Secures Additional $15M

Israeli medical device startup CartiHeal, a developer of implants to treat joint surface lesions in traumatic and osteoarthritic joints, announced that it has raised an additional $15 million equity investment from Bioventus, a global leader in orthobiologics.

The funds will be used to complete patient follow-up for the startup’s study and to support its first application submission for pre market approval to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA.)

Bioventus made an initial $2.5 million investment in the study in January 2018, as part of a previous financing round.

Bioventus and CartiHeal have also agreed on an option structure under which Bioventus will acquire the company shortly after FDA approval of the implant, a statement said. The terms of that option structure are not disclosed.

“We are pleased Bioventus continues to see value in the Agili-C implant and is making a greater investment to support the completion of the IDE study,” said Nir Altschuler, founder & CEO of CartiHeal.

“The successful enrollment and outcome at the interim analysis of CartiHeal’s pivotal study for Agili-C implant is an important milestone,” said Ken Reali, CEO, Bioventus. “It is a testament to the strength of its continuing development program and more importantly the future potential of the Agili-C technology in addressing the large unmet need in patients with joint surface lesions. This investment underscores our belief in the novel technology and we look forward to working with the team at CartiHeal in the years to come.”