Galway-based medtech company Venari Medical has raised $5.3 million (€4.5 million) in funding to accelerate the developing of its BioVena device for the treatment of chronic venous disease (CVD).
The seed round has been led by Nipro Corporation, an Osaka-headquartered medical product manufacturer. The Western Development Commission and Enterprise Ireland also participated as did a number of medical device experts and vascular surgeons.
Venari said it intends to use the funding to enable the clinical validation of the BioVena device and to create 20 new jobs over the next three years.
CVD affects one in four adults and covers a range of conditions from enlarged varicose veins to distressing and uncomfortable open sores known as leg ulcers.
The market opportunity of CVD treatment is over $2 billion annually in the US & European Union. Recent high-quality clinical evidence, supporting the benefits of acute intervention to improve overall healing of venous leg ulcers, has the potential to add over $1.5 billion to this opportunity, Venari claims.
It says CVD management places a huge burden on healthcare systems amounting to $33 billion per year in the US and EU alone, representing 2.5 per cent of total healthcare expenditure.
"We believe that widespread adoption of the BioVena device has significant cost saving potential for healthcare systems," said chief executive Stephen Cox.
Founded in 2018 by Mr Cox, Sean Cummins and Nigel Phelan, Venari Medical is a National University of Ireland Galway spin-out, through the BioInnovate Ireland programme. Its novel catheter system achieves effective mechanical vein disruption at a cellular level to cure symptoms linked to chronic venous disease.
