MedTech Firm V-Wave Raises $70M For Heart Failure Device Study

April 29, 2018 | Israeli medical technology startup V-Wave announced that it raised $70 million in a Series C funding round led by Deerfield Management along with participation from new investors including healthcare funds Endeavour Vision, Quark Venture. and Aperture Venture Partners. Existing investors also participated in the round, namely Johnson & Johnson Innovation (JJDC Inc.) and Edwards Lifesciences, BRM Group, Pontifax, Pura Vida Investments, TriVentures, BioStar Ventures, and Israel Secondary Fund. V-Wave, founded in 2010, has developed a proprietary, minimally invasive implanted interatrial shunt device for treating patients with severe symptomatic heart failure (HF). With approval from the FDA to initiate a pivotal study, V-Wave announced “the upcoming launch of its global, randomized, controlled, double-blinded multicenter clinical trial – the RELIEVE-HF study – evaluating the safety and effectiveness of its novel device therapy in HF patients with Class III or ambulatory Class IV symptoms with preserved or reduced ejection fraction already receiving optimal therapies.” Dr. Andrew ElBardissi, Principal at Deerfield Management, said in a statement, “V-Wave has developed a novel technology that addresses the underlying cause of heart failure decompensations. This technology has the potential to be the standard of care for a large segment of HF patients that continue to worsen despite the use of approved drugs and devices. In addition to improving outcomes for patients, this has the potential to significantly reduce the cost burden of heart failure.” Dr. Neal Eigler, Chief Executive Officer at V-Wave, said: “As an interventional cardiologist focused on HF for the past two decades, I am excited that with this funding, we can pursue the science that will bring us a giant step closer to commercial release of an easy to implant device that can provide the hope for immediate and longer-term symptom relief, increased exercise capacity, decreased need for acute hospital admission, and reduced mortality with an improved quality of life for hundreds of thousands of suffering patients.”