MicroCHIPS Adds $16.5 Million to Pursue Wireless Medical Implants

MicroCHIPS, the Bedford, MA-based startup developing wireless medical implants containing chemical sensors or drug reservoirs, has raised $16.5 million in Series C venture funding, according to a company announcement today. Existing investors Polaris Venture Partners, Novartis Venture Fund, Flybridge Capital Partners, Medtronic, Saints Capital, Intersouth Partners, Care Capital, and CSK Venture Capital were all on board for the new round, which also included new investor InterWest Partners.

Diabetes is the first health condition the company hopes to target. The company says it will begin initial clinical tests this year of an implant designed to monitor blood glucose levels and deliver the data wirelessly to a mobile device. Such a system could help diabetes patients maintain blood sugar levels more consistently. A second implantable device in development would treat osteoporosis by delivering doses of a bone-building hormone directly to the spine, freeing patients from pills, patches, or self-injections.

MicroCHIPS founder and CEO John Santini formed the company in 1999 around technology developed in the laboratories of MIT professors Robert Langer and Michael Cima. We profiled Santini in 2007; this month he’s heading to Davos, Switzerland, for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, which recently named MicroCHIPS and five other Boston-area companies as “Technology Pioneers.”