Cibiem said today that it has raised $10 million in a Series A round of financing led by life sciences venture investors SV Life Sciences and Third Rock Ventures. The New York company is developing minimally invasive medical devices for the treatment of conditions like hypertension, heart failure, diabetes, and renal failure.
The firm launched out of Coridea, a New York-based medical device incubator. Cibiem said it will use its new funds to help develop its minimally invasive catheter-based system that targets the carotid body, a small cluster of nerve cells receptors located at the fork of the carotid artery, before it runs up each side of the throat. The company is already testing such a system in humans, according to today’s announcement.
There have been several studies in recent years indicating that signals from the carotid body play an important role in hypertension and other cardiac and pulmonary diseases. Howard R. Levin, co-founder of Coridea and co-founder and president of Cibiem, said in a press release that the startup’s ability to manipulate the carotid body was an “based on extensive studies and a deep understanding of the interdependence of the body’s various systems.” Such an approach, he added, “could mean exciting new treatment possibilities for a broad range of diseases.”
Levin and Cibiem co-founder Mark Gelfand also co-founded Coridea, in 2003, and have launched six medical device companies including Ardian, which was acquired for $800 million by Medtronic in 2010. Cibiem’s board of directors includes Jonathan Wyler, principal at SV Life Sciences, and Neil Exter, partner at Third Rock Ventures. Chief medical officer Paul Sobotka will discuss Cibiem’s approach as part of a broader presentation at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics 2012 Conference in Miami, October 22-26.
