A couple of Orange County heart device makers landed more funding last week.
CoreValve Inc., which moved from France to Irvine last year, raised $33 million in a third round of venture funding. The latest round brings CoreValve’s total to $63 million.
The other, Orqis Medical Inc., a Lake Forest heart device company, said it raised $12 million as part of its fourth round of venture capital. The funding brings Orqis’ fourth-round total to $34.7 million. It raised $22.7 million in an earlier funding round. Overall, Orqis has raised $73 million.
Maverick Capital Ltd. led CoreValve’s investment. Existing investors that took part were Apax Partners, which has an office in Menlo Park, HealthCap, a Swedish venture fund, and Sofinnova Partners Inc., a French firm.
Orqis’ funding saw three new investors lead the round: Salt Lake City-based Wasatch Advisors Inc. and its private equity affiliate, Cross Creek Capital LP, and the Omega Fund, which has a couple of offices, including one in London. Existing investors also participated, Orqis said.
CoreValve will use its latest funding to boost development of its heart valve and Percutaneous ReValving technique, which can be done on a beating heart via a catheter, cutting the need for open-heart surgery.
Orqis’ products include Cancion, which is inserted through the skin to treat acute congestive heart failure, and Exeleras, an implantable pump that’s used to treat patients with mid- to late-stage chronic heart failure.
The funding will allow Orqis to complete a pivotal clinical trial, submit a pre-market application for Cancion to the Food and Drug Administration and get Exeleras through its first human trial, said Chief Executive Ken Charhut in a release.
Congestive heart failure is the breakdown of the heart’s ability to pump blood through the body. Some 5 million Americans have the disease and it’s responsible for 4 million hospital visits a year, according to the American Heart Association.
CoreValve started off in Paris but moved its headquarters to Irvine with an eye toward raising money to fund Percutaneous ReValving’s development.
“There is no doubt that we’re going to need more money,it’s a heart valve,” said Rob Michiels, CoreValve’s chief operating officer and president, last year.
CoreValve actually opened an Irvine office in 1994, during a time that the company was working on a catheter for delivering a valve to a patient’s heart. The company’s one of several in the fledgling market for heart valves that don’t require major surgery.
Catheter-based replacement is expected to play a bigger part in heart surgery. Analysts and industry figures have estimated the market for such valves could reach $1 billion within 10 years of approval.
The first catheter-based valves under development, however, aren’t expected to be available until the end of the decade.
Three years ago, Irvine’s Edwards Lifesciences Corp., the leader in conventional heart valves, paid $125 million for Percutaneous Valve Technologies Inc., a maker of catheter-inserted valves. Other companies that are working on less-invasive products include Medtronic Inc., which has a plant in Santa Ana, and Lake Forest-based 3F Therapeutics Inc., which now is part of Minnesota’s ATS Medical Inc.
Both Charhut and Michiels have roots in what was then the heart unit of Baxter International Inc., which spun out as Edwards seven years ago.
Charhut spent 16 years in management positions in the unit, including a stint as president of Bentley Laboratories. Michiels held various global sales and marketing jobs with Edwards when it was Baxter’s cardiovascular business.
