Forbion Capital Partners’ investee company, CircuLite has raised USD30 million for its oversubscribed Series D financing round. The round was led by new investor, MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc., and Forbion Capital Partners, a founding VC of CircuLite and the largest investor in the Company.
Proceeds from the Series D financing will support the anticipated European commercial launch of the Synergy® circulatory support system for patients with Class IIIb and early Class IV heart failure, pending the receipt of CE Mark approval anticipated in the first half of 2012. The Series D funding will also support the US clinical development of Synergy from a pilot IDE study through the initiation of a pivotal trial, and will enable CircuLite to initiate a first-in-human study in Europe with an endovascular system.
“This significant and oversubscribed Series D financing underscores the substantial potential of the Synergy system to improve heart failure treatment. These proceeds will support our continued leadership position in the field advancing our pipeline of products for heart failure patients, including launch of our Synergy system in Europe in 2012,” said Paul Southworth, President and CEO of CircuLite.
“Forbion has seen CircuLite through its various stages, from its inception when the key technology was spun off from the Helmholtz Institute in Aachen, Germany, to its current level of maturity” says Martien van Osch of Forbion Capital Partners and a Director on CircuLite’s Board. “CircuLite is an excellent example of European technology optimally benefitting from a transatlantic effort, by combining Germany-based innovative and specialised R&D capabilities with US-based professional corporate leadership and business savvy”.
“The technology on which CircuLite was founded has proven to be a broad platform enabling the development of a rich product pipeline,” says Dr Avi Molcho of Forbion Capital Partners and a director on CircuLite’s Board. “The Company’s products address the largest population of heart failure patients compared to any other device-based treatment. The ability to treat a range from the less sick to severe heart failure patients clearly positions CircuLite as a leading player in this field."
“The cardiology and cardiac surgery communities are seeking new, minimally invasive options for treating heart failure patients, and as a result, are very interested in the Synergy system,” says Dr Rose of MacAndrews & Forbes. “CircuLite’s leadership in the development of innovative circulatory support systems and the clinical and commercial promise of Synergy in Europe and the US all make CircuLite an attractive investment opportunity.”
Prior to joining MacAndrews & Forbes in 2007, Dr Rose was Chairman of the Department of Surgery and Surgeon-in-Chief of the Columbia Presbyterian Center of New York Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Rose is a past President of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation and was also the Morris & Rose Millstein Professor of Surgery at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons’ Department of Surgery.