Endotronix raises $32m for implantable heart remote monitoring
Endotronix, the cardiac-monitoring device maker, has raised $32m in new funding from BioVentures, SV Life Sciences, Lumira Capital, Aperture Venture Partners and OSF Ventures, taking total funding to $50m. The company produces a wireless implantable pulmonary-artery pressure sensor which can remotely monitor heart-failure patients. Monitoring heart-rate changes is the best way to identify impending heart failure, but previously this could only be performed in a clinical context. Hospitals are also keen to find new ways of managing heart-failure patients outside hospitals because repeated admissions can trigger financial penalties.

Chicago-based Endotronix, which makes devices to manage heart failure and remotely monitor cardiac patients, has raised $32 million in new funding. Investors included BioVentures, SV Life Sciences, Lumira Capital, Aperture Venture Partners and OSF Ventures. Existing investors as well as an unnamed corporate investor also participated. This brings Endotronix's total funding to date to $50 million.

As part of the deal, representatives from BioVentures, SVLS, Lumira and Luxemburg Capital will join the board of directors, plus one independent board member.

“We are pleased to welcome these high caliber medtech investors and our new board members,” Endotronix CEO Harry Rowland said in a statement. “The Series C financing will fund our clinical program including commercialization of our cloud-based outpatient management system and the safety and feasibility study for our implantable wireless pulmonary artery sensor.”

As a device-maker, Endotronix has a strong focus on digital health and cloud-based tools. The company makes a wireless implantable pulmonary artery pressure sensor – still not available on the market – for heart failure patients that will allow for remote monitoring. Monitoring changes in heart rate is the most accurate way to identify worsening heart failure, but such observation was only available into a clinical setting until recently. Endotronix’s offering is different than other implantable devices available in that it will allow patients, caregivers and physicians who see the data to communicate and tailor care plans based on changes.

Since repeat hospital admissions incur financial penalties from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, hospitals are actively looking for new solutions to manage heart failure patients outside the hospital readmissions.

Leslie Saxon, who is professor of medicine and executive director for the Center for Body Computing at University of Southern California (as well as an Endotronix board member) weighed in in a statement.

“Patient-friendly, wireless solutions that provide early detection and link the physician and patient in continuous communication have enormous potential for the management of chronic heart failure,” Saxon state. “The Endotronix solution optimizes the inefficient management and communication pathways that currently plague both patients and physicians.”