Reva Medical, which is developing naturally absorbing stents for the lower legs, said last week that it had raised $45 million in a second round of investment funding.
The 27-employee San Diego company, which was publicly traded on an Australian stock exchange for a time, emerged from a pre-packaged bankruptcy filing in February 2020 aimed at restructuring its debt. Reva Medical will use the new funding for general corporate purposes, including moving forward with a clinical trial program for its MOTIV-brand bio-resorbable scaffold.
Because they’re not permanent and absorb over time, bio-resorbable stents are commonly referred to as scaffolds. MOTIV targets patients suffering from below-the-knee peripheral vascular disease.
Jeffery Anderson, chief executive of Reva Medical, said the lead investor in the funding round “wished to remain silent at this time.”
“We are only able to disclose that they are a global strategic investor with deep experience in the medical device sector,” said Anderson in an email.
Reva Medical did name BioStar Capital as secondary financial backer in the funding round.
“Two hundred million patients worldwide are affected by severe arterial disease of the legs,” said Louis Cannon, founder of BioStar, in a statement. “We believe the REVA absorbable scaffold has the potential to reduce limb amputations and possibly save lives.”
Absorbable scaffolds were introduced about a decade ago as an alternative to metal stents. But problems arose around safety and effectiveness. Abbott pulled its Absorb-brand scaffold off the market in 2017 amid poor sales and negative publicity. Overall demand dried up.
Reva Medical says its scaffolds are made with a different, proprietary polymer than earlier generation products. In addition, its scaffolds can be seen on X-rays, which the company believes provides a procedural benefit to doctors.
MOTIV has not received U.S. regulatory approval. Reva Medical hasn’t disclosed the status of its clinical trial program but expects to make an announcement in coming weeks, said Anderson.
In addition to MOTIV, the company is developing bio-resorbable embolic bead technology that targets hyper-vascular tumors.
