Atritech Completes $30 Million Financing
Atritech Completes $30 Million Financing
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Media Contact:
Brenda Gutzke
Atritech, Inc.
763-746-5002
bgutzke@atritech.net
ATRITECH COMPLETES $30 MILLION FINANCING
Company scheduled to announce PROTECT AF results on March 28th at ACC.
March 25, 2009 – Minneapolis – Atritech, Inc. a clinical stage medical device company, announced today that it has completed a $30 million round of financing. Thomas, McNerney & Partners led the round along with a substantial investment from Split Rock Partners and insider investments from Prism Ventures, Tullis-Dickerson and Vector Group. Over the past 3 years, the Company has raised approximately $75 million in capital.
With this new funding, the Company will complete the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) review of the PROTECT AF clinical trial results along with the commercial launch of the WATCHMAN® LAA Closure Technology in Europe. The PROTECT AF clinical trial evaluates the WATCHMAN device versus the current standard of care, warfarin, in patients with atrial fibrillation. In August of 2008, Atritech announced the filing of its Pre-Market Approval Application (PMA) to the FDA. The Company will present the PROTECT AF results to the FDA’s Circulatory System Devices Panel on April 23, 2009. The WATCHMAN device continues to be implanted in a Continued Access Registry (CAP) while the product is under review at the FDA. To date over 110 devices have been implanted in CAP at approximately 20 sites in the U.S. and Europe.
Atritech’s WATCHMAN device is designed to keep harmful sized blood clots from entering a patient’s blood stream, potentially causing a stroke. Patients with AF (a heart condition which causes the upper chambers of the heart to beat too rapidly) are at a greater risk of having a stroke. Typically these patients require blood thinning medications to prevent these clots from forming in the heart. Current medical therapy requires frequent monitoring and has diet and other drug interactions causing many patients to stop taking them. The WATCHMAN device may be an effective alternative for patients with AF who may not want to take blood thinning medications for life.
“Atritech has developed an exciting new product that in our opinion will offer a significant clinical benefit to the market. We look forward to working with the company to help make the WATCHMAN a commercial success,” commented Pete McNerney, Partner at Thomas, McNerney & Partners.
“We are excited to have attracted a new lead investor along with receiving the continued support from our existing investor group prior to the upcoming FDA panel meeting. After nine years in the development and clinical stage, we are ready to present our case to the FDA and launch commercial operations outside the United States,” said Jim Bullock, President & CEO of Atritech. “We also look forward to the presentation of the PROTECT AF trial results this weekend at the ACC. Our results would be of significant interest to any patient with atrial fibrillation currently on warfarin therapy.” added Bullock.
The PROTECT AF results will be unveiled at the Late Breaking Clinical Trial session during the I2 Summit Scientific Meeting at 8:30 am on March 28, 2009. The I2 Summit is part of the Annual Meeting of the American College of Cardiology being held March 28 – 31 in Orlando, Florida. The Company will also be exhibiting at booth #2857.
About Atritech
Atritech is privately held and based in Plymouth, Minnesota. Major investors in Atritech include SplitRock Partners, Prism Venture Partners, Thomas McNerney Partners, Tullis-Dickerson Partners, The Vector Group, Thoma Cressey Funds, SightLine Funds and Affinity Capital. For more information, visit www.atritech.net.
About Thomas, McNerney & Partners
Thomas, McNerney & Partners is a health care venture capital firm with approximately $600 million under management, focused on investing in life science and medical technology companies at all stages of development. In addition to helping entrepreneurs launch companies with seed and early-stage funding, the firm provides growth capital to emerging companies to advance clinical development or for product commercialization. Thomas, McNerney & Partners also is involved in spinning out products and divisions from major medical device and pharmaceutical companies, consolidating companies through roll-up strategies and participating in structured financings for public companies, as well as recapitalizations. The firm is targeting investments in the pharmaceutical, medical device, biotechnology and diagnostic sectors and in other areas utilizing medical technology innovation. The firm has offices in Stamford, Minneapolis and San Francisco.
