With the participation of Seed Fonds III for the region of Aachen and Mönchengladbach GmbH & Co. KG, the US listed medical technology company Abiomed Inc. and coparion GmbH & Co. KG as well as other co-investors the Aachen-based startup Protembis GmbH has successfully closed a $ 10 Million Series A Financing. The company expects to bring its product to market maturity with this capital.
Protembis develops a filter system that is supposed to minimize the risk of stroke in the case of a catheter-based heart valve intervention. The company’s innovative technology „ProtEmbo Cerebral Protection System“, short „ProtEmbo“ serves as a protection for the contemporary method of transcatheter aortic valve implantation („TAVI“) where a particle migration to the brain is frequent and thereby can trigger a stroke.
The filtering device „ProtEmbo“ gets inserted ahead of the operation and can be repealed afterwards. While the permeable „ProtEmbo“ material obstructs the influx to the brain, it enables the free passage of the blood cell in the aorta without leaking embolic particles. Additionally, the filter is coated with heparin and therefore, prevents it from clotting during the transplantation.
Both the initial safety and the practicality as well as the efficiency of the ProtEmbo technology could already be proven within a clinical trial in the human body.