Medtech startup CorFlow Therapeutics AG has completed a €44 million in Series B funding round backed by a top-tier global syndicate of medical technology investors. The funds will support the startup’s international pivotal trial to diagnose Microvascular Obstruction (MVO) and a randomized controlled trial to evaluate therapeutic treatments for MVO through the CoFI system.
Headquarted in Baar (Zug), CorFlow’s Controlled Flow Infusion (CoFI) system is being developed to provide timely, accurate and consistent detection of Microvascular Obstruction (MVO) while patients are still in the catheter laboratory (cath lab) immediately following the reopening of the larger epicardial arteries with a stent. Uniquely, the technology has been designed to also enable localized delivery of therapeutics to the microvasculature upon MVO diagnosis. CoFl also seamlessly integrates into standard workflows utilizing existing guide catheter and wire access. MVO affects more than half of all patients who suffer an acute heart attack and is an independent predictor for heart failure and mortality.
Paul Mead, President and Chief Executive Officer of CorFlow, says: "Recent data from over 70 patients in our MOCA I first in human trial and from our extensive preclinical program support our collective confidence that we can improve outcomes in patients who suffer heart attacks, specifically those patients whose microvascular disease goes undiagnosed and untreated today. There is overwhelming evidence now that microvascular conditions are a significant root cause of adverse outcomes in heart attack patients and other cardiovascular conditions..."
Co-led by Broadview Ventures and Panakes Partners, CoFlow’s series B round received strong continued support from 415 Capital, its initial VC investor and largest shareholder. Merieux Equity Partners, Laerdal Million Lives Fund, Wellington Partners, M&L Investments, Unorthodox Ventures, KOFA Healthcare and Monte Carlo Capital participated in the multinational syndicate.
The fresh proceeds of $44 million will fund the MOCA II (MVO with CoFI System Assessment II) pivotal study intended to gain US market clearance. The trial will run in the US and Europe and aims to validate CorFlow’s CoFl system to diagnose MVO in heart attack patients immediately following stent implantation. Additionally, it will fund an adaptive platform therapy study evaluating treatment effects of therapeutic agents delivered locally through the CoFl system on heart attack patients diagnosed with MVO.
The MOCA II IDE trial is designed to confirm the CoFl system’s accuracy in diagnosing MVO in high-risk heart attack patients. Led by Principal Investigator Dr. Tim Henry of The Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, the trial will recruit several hundred patients undergoing stent implantation due to ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) and will compare CoFl's proprietary dynamic diagnostic measurement of MVO to post-procedure Contrast Enhanced Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging (CMRI), the current gold standard for detecting MVO. The MOCA II trial leverages the learnings from the company’s First-In-Human MOCA I trial conducted in Switzerland, Latvia and the UK.
New members on the Board of Directors
Concurrent with the financing, David Prim of Broadview Ventures, Barbara Castellano of Panakes Partners, Yoann Bonnamour of Merieux Equity Partners, and Rhiya Pau of Laerdal Million Lives Fund have joined the CorFlow Board of Directors.
(Press release/RAN)
The new Swiss Venture Capital Report was published on 26 January. It analyses 304 financing rounds closed in 2020 and includes further article such as an interview with Michael Hengartner, President of the ETH Board, and a list of Swiss "soonicorns". 
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