Cardialen Secures $17 Million in Series B Funding to Advance Low-Voltage Implantable Defibrillator

On October 11, 2018, VCBeat (WeChat ID: VCbeat) learned that medical device company Cardialen had completed a $17 million Series B financing round. The round was led by RiverVest Venture Partners, with participation from Qiming Venture Partners, Cultivation Capital, and HBM Healthcare Investments AG. Additionally, Jay Schmelter of RiverVest Ventures, Christopher Shen, M.D., of Qiming Venture Partners, and Dr. Thomas Thaler of HBM Healthcare Investments will join Cardialen’s Board of Directors. Since its establishment in 2008, Cardialen has undergone a total of 11 financing rounds of varying sizes, raising a cumulative amount of $32 million.

Cardialen is a medical device company developing implantable low-voltage defibrillators designed to alleviate the suffering of patients with arrhythmias and gently help them restore normal heart rhythm. Cardialen will use this round of financing to further advance the clinical program for human testing of its Unpin Termination (UPT) therapy, as well as the research and development of its implantable devices.

Currently, treatment methods for patients with arrhythmia are mainly divided into two categories: pharmacological therapy and non-pharmacological therapy. Long-term use of antiarrhythmic drugs can cause side effects of varying degrees; in severe cases, it may lead to fatal ventricular arrhythmias or cardiac conduction blocks. Non-pharmacological treatments include surgical procedures, electrical defibrillation, electrical cardioversion, pacemaker implantation, and ablation. Among these, electrical defibrillation involves delivering a strong electric current through the heart to simultaneously depolarize all myocardial cells instantly. It is a rapid treatment for atrial fibrillation (AF), ventricular tachycardia (VT), and ventricular fibrillation (VF). However, this therapy is associated with numerous side effects, such as hypotension, acute pulmonary edema, myocardial injury, skin burns, premature ventricular contractions (PVCs), and accelerated decline in cardiac function.

Cardialen’s UPT therapy delivers a series of low-energy electrical pulses to restore abnormally rapid heart rates to normal rhythm. This low-voltage therapy is better tolerated and causes less damage to cardiac function, thereby mitigating the side effects associated with current high-voltage defibrillators. Early feasibility studies in humans have demonstrated that Cardialen’s UPT therapy can successfully treat arrhythmias, using significantly lower energy levels than existing defibrillators.

Jay Schmelter, Managing Director at RiverVest Ventures, stated, “Cardialen’s UPT therapy addresses the unique needs of the high-current and potential defibrillator markets. The early therapeutic prospects for UPT are promising, and we look forward to collaborating with Cardialen to develop this innovative therapy.”

Dr. Igor Efimov, Founder and Scientific Advisor of Cardialen and Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at George Washington University, stated, “The high-energy shocks delivered by current implantable defibrillator therapies cause significant pain to patients and can lead to shock or even death. Our UPT therapy aims to reduce the side effects of high-voltage currents and provide patients with a better quality of life.”

Image from Medical Design & Outsourcing

Cardialen, founded in 2008 and headquartered in Missouri, USA, is dedicated to developing and commercializing painless cardiac cardioversion therapies for patients with arrhythmias, particularly those with atrial fibrillation (AF). AF is the most common type of arrhythmia worldwide, affecting more than 3 million patients in the United States. Unlike ventricular fibrillation (VF), AF is not immediately life-threatening; however, it significantly increases the risk of stroke and premature death, leading to substantial medical costs and a marked decline in patients’ quality of life. Cardialen aims to develop low-voltage implantable defibrillators that use gentle therapy to help patients with arrhythmias restore normal heart rhythm and improve their quality of life.