Diadem, an academic spin-off active in early Alzheimer diagnostic, raises €1,5 million in its A Round led by Panakes Partners


Panakès Partners has led an investment round of ca. €1,5 million in Diadem an innovative startup based in Milan and London operating in the In Vitro Diagnostic sector for early diagnostic of Alzheimer.

Alzheimer’s affects more people today than cancer and heart disease combined and there are currently no disease modifying drugs approved on the market. Therapeutics in trials are expected to work better in people with limited brain damage, when patients show no or limited symptoms. With current diagnostic tools, however, it is very difficult to identify patients at these early stages. Diadem’s potentially revolutionary new test is blood-based and according to strong preliminary data, should be more accurate, inexpensive and certainly non-invasive and should then solve one of the biggest bottlenecks in the race for a cure.

Diadem’s scientific co-founder Prof Daniela Uberti, University of Brescia, says: “This financing round is instrumental to allow the company to validate and launch our diagnostic kit on the market.” Prof. Maurizio Memo, the scientific co-founder of the company continued: “The momentum is ideal. There is finally scientific consensus in the community that brain damage from Alzheimer’s starts decades before symptoms appear and that therapies should be most effective when symptoms are not present.“

“We are excited of our investment in Diadem since we recognise the value of 15 years of R&D work, with progress potentially affecting one of the main unmet clinical needs of medicine today, the treatment of Alzhemer patients. We strongly believed in the scientific background of the founding team, the robustness of its initial clinical data and are confident that its management team will lead the company to success!” said Diana Saraceni, Panakes General Partner.

“We are excited to work alongside Panakes, a fund focused on the sector, providing the right expertise and international network to the project. Our aim is not only to create value for the company but also for the entire Alzheimers’ patients community” commented Andreas Ballis Managing Director of the UK entity. “We see a bright future for the company, as we are every day more excited about confirmatory data on our predictive accuracy; final validation for regulatory approval will shortly be completed in the coming months and this financing was key to secure our activities“ enthusiastically continued Simona Piccirella Managing Director of the Italian entity

Panakès investment also allowed the company to attract a significant number of talents in the company including advisors and company’s board members. Among them Francesco Granata, an industry veteran, former part of the Executive Committee at Biogen Idec and Group Vice President for Schering-Plough Europe and Canada; Antonio Boniolo co-founder of DiaSorin one of the leading multinationals in the IVD space; Antonella Fassio, former Director of Regulatory Affairs of DiaSorin and on the medical side Prof. Jeff Cummings, a leading key opinion leader in Alzheimer’s and Director Emeritus of Cleveland Clinic Center for Brain Health and Robert Dean, ex. Director Diagnostics & Experimental Medicine at Eli Lilly.

The company will progress the test through clinical trials and regulatory approval in the EU and US. The test is expected to have CE marking in Europe by the end of 2019.

The company will attend the JP. Morgan Healthcare conference in San. Francisco this January.


About Diadem
Diadem develops blood diagnostics for AD at the asymptomatic and very early stages. The company developed he only test in the world that proved in clinical validation, the highest accuracy (>95%AUC) for detecting Alzheimer’s when symptoms are absent, tested on highly qualified longitudinal bio-bank samples of AIBL study. Diadem’s technology is critical for successful drug development for Alzheimer’s disease and early, cost effective, non-invasive diagnosis.


About Panakès Partners
Panakès Partners invests is a Venture Capital investor that finances medical companies, early stage startup and SMEs, with extremely promising products and great ambition, in Europe and Israel, improving both patient outcomes and healthcare economics. Investments focus on the medical device, diagnostics and healthcare IT fields. Panakès Partners is headquartered in Milan, Italy.
www.panakes.it Contact: contact@panakes.it

Endostart, an Italian startup aiming at reducing endoscopic procedures’ complexity, raised €1 million in its seed round of financing

Panakès Partners led the round alongside of Estor, A11 Venture and sector business angels.


Panakès Partners has led an investment round of ca. €1 million in Endostart (www.endostart.com), an innovative startup based in Certaldo (Florence, Tuscany - Italy) operating in the medical technologies sector.

Endostart first product, Endorail, is an endoscopic magnetic guidewire able to guide a colonoscope along the colon, ultimately possibly avoiding incomplete colonoscopies. Endorail is a quite simple system composed by a balloon guidewire, a ferrofluid prefilled syringe and an external magnet. This technology is also supposed to reduce the procedural time of most colonoscopies while potentially reducing patient pain and discomfort as well as healthcare related costs.

As of today, roughly 60 million colonoscopies are performed worldwide. Colonoscopy is the elective diagnostic and therapeutic procedure for identification and removal of colorectal tumors and has proved to be the most effective examination for colorectal cancer screening.

The founding team of Endostart is composed by Alessandro Tozzi MD, specialist in Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Digestive endoscopy, who resigned from his previous position as medical director at “Nuovo Ospedale San Giuseppe, Empoli” to fully commit to Endostart development and serve as CEO to the company, and Alberto Bruni, president of Special Electronic Design Srl, who provides extensive experience in business administration and finance.

Panakès investment allows the founding team to be supported by a number of advisors with relevant experience: Lukas Guenther (former Investment Director, Wellington Partner), Oliver Hofmann (former Senior Investment Manager, Inventages Ventures) and Barbara Castellano (Principal, Panakès Partners) will serve as non-executive directors, while Diana Saraceni (co-founder and General Partner at Panakès Partners) will be Chairman.

“Thanks to new financial resources we will now be able to develop an entire new family of devices based on ferrofluid and magnetic fields which could provide new diagnostic and therapeutic options for millions of patients worldwide” enthusiastically commented the CEO and co-founder of Endostart, Alessandro Tozzi. “Colonoscopy is generally considered a difficult exam to be performed: data report a 5-25% rate of incomplete tests overall. Incomplete colonoscopies are associated with higher risk of missing a potential harmful lesion hence to a diagnostic delay which might ultimately translate in a worst prognosis for the patient. We are developing Endorail to make exam more accessible to operators, enabling a complete and high quality procedure for all patients that need to be tested. As of today, the device is still under development and will have to be further tested in clinical setting”.

“Endostart has all the charachteristics to be succesfull in the digestive endoscopy market, a segment really prone to innovation” said Diana Saraceni. “Thanks to deep experience and strong reputation of its clinicians, Europe has already given birth to various successful Venture Capital investment cases in this sector, not least the history of Invendo Medical which has seen me directly involved as an investor”.


About Endostart

Endostart is an Italian start-up founded in 2018 developing a new generation of medical devices for upper and lower gastrointestinal endoscopy based on proprietary Magnetic Balloon Anchoring Technology (MBAT). The first product is Endorail, a device aimed at enabling fast, safe and painless completion of colonoscopies. Endostart is supported by private investors, led by a highly professional team and an international board with multi-exit experience. Quality Management System is currently being implemented targeting ISO 13485 accreditation and CE mark granting.
www.endostart.com Contact: info@endostart.com


About Panakès Partners

Panakès Partners is a Venture Capital investor that finances medical companies, early stage startup and SMEs, with extremely promising products and great ambition, in Europe and Israel, improving both patient outcomes and healthcare economics. Investments focus on the medical device, diagnostics and healthcare IT fields. Panakès Partners is headquartered in Milan, Italy.
www.panakes.it Contact: contact@panakes.it


About Estor SpA

With more than 40 years of experience in the medical sector, Estor (www.estor.it) distributes both proprietary and third-party innovative and high-tech products. In particular, the company is specializes in blood purification therapies for various clinical applications, including hemodialysis and intensive care. Estor is characterized by an international team of bioengineers, biologists, pharmacists, chemists, managers and administrative staff. Its corporate structure allows the capillary coverage of the entire national territory and, currently in Italy, holds relationships with more than 600 public and private hospitals.


About A11 Venture

A11 Venture srl is an holding company which invests in startups during Seed, proposing solutions targeting international markets. Investments focus on the fields of robotics & automation, additive manufacturing, AI & machine learning applications, medtech, big data & cybersecurity solutions. A11 Venture has its headquarter in Lucca, Italy, in the hearth of some of the main important industrial clusters of Tuscany Region, and next to University and Research hub of Pisa-Florence-Lucca. 
www.a11venture.it Contact: info@a11venture.it

CarThera closes €9M ($10.3M) Series B funding round

Funding will enable company to launch multi-center trial in patients with recurrent glioblastoma and develop clinical pipeline


Paris, France, December 12, 2018 – CarThera, a French company that designs and develops innovative ultrasound-based medical devices to treat brain disorders, today announces that it has closed its Series B funding round. €9M ($10.3M) was raised with three institutional investors, Panakès Partners, Sham Innovation Santé (advised by Turenne Capital) and Supernova Invest via its fund Supernova 2, as well as Group Arnault and historical investors. The proceeds will be used to further advance the SonoCloud technology and develop the clinical pipeline of the company. A multi-center study has already been launched in France and in the US to evaluate the SonoCloud-9 device, a new generation of implant with nine ultrasound emitters, in patients with recurrent glioblastoma. The company also has an on-going clinical study with the SonoCloud-1 device in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and one planned for patients with brain metastases.

“After almost ten years of scientific work, it is a great achievement to receive financial support from these renowned investment funds. We are very positive about our upcoming clinical trials and we firmly believe that the SonoCloud can improve the treatment options for patients with various conditions,” said Professor Alexandre Carpentier, founder of CarThera.

CarThera’s SonoCloud is an implantable ultrasound device that temporarily opens the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in a controlled manner, in order to increase the penetration of therapeutic molecules in the brain and potentially improve the efficacy of treatments for patients with brain tumors and neurodegenerative diseases. The BBB not only limits the efficacy of traditional chemotherapies, but also of other agents like new immunotherapies, which have shown significant clinical efficacy for a broad range of solid tumors such as breast cancer and melanoma. The impact of the BBB is reflected in a drastic slowdown in the development of new drug therapies for the brain. Since 1998, development of nearly 75 molecules indicated for brain tumors have been abandoned in the absence of conclusive results. There is a substantial unmet need for solutions to overcome this barrier, by providing patients suffering from severe brain diseases with more effective treatments.

“We are excited about our investment in CarThera, since its ultrasound-based platform technology addresses many of the most challenging therapeutic indications in today’s life science world. We strongly believe in the robustness of its initial clinical data and in the execution capabilities of its management team. We are proud to now be part of it,” said Diana Saraceni, general partner at Panakès Partners.

“We are particularly pleased to make this investment in CarThera, which is very well positioned to become a global leader in the field of therapeutic ultrasound for brain diseases. We are excited to be working alongside CarThera’s management and other investors to reinforce and expand the company's capabilities and assets. CarThera fits perfectly into our investment strategy, which focuses on groundbreaking technology companies in life sciences,” said Bervin Bouani, senior associate at Turenne Capital.

“CarThera combines a disruptive approach to treat pathologies with major unmet needs and an outstanding clinical and management team. We are delighted to be on board and support the company’s future developments,” adds Celia Hart, partner at Supernova Invest.

Following the funding round, CarThera became a public limited company (SA), with the newly created board including a representative of the founders (Delphine Gaultier de la Ferrière), the CEO, representatives of institutional investors and a historic investor (Alexis de Longevialle, CEO of BOUSCAS).

“We are delighted with the results of our Series B funding round that strengthens our cash position and opens up the possibility to pursue multiple clinical indications. The proceeds will be used to globally expand our clinical investigations in glioblastoma and to develop our proprietary platform technology in other brain diseases with huge unmet needs,” said Frederic Sottilini, chairman of the board and CEO of CarThera. “This funding provides CarThera with the financial stability and flexibility to become a leader in the field of therapeutic ultrasound for brain diseases.”

Advisors for the Series B financing round included:
Financial: Nabil Gharios, DNA Finance
Legal: Sidonie Hill, Egyp Avocats


About SonoCloud®
SonoCloud is an innovative medical device developed by CarThera. It emits ultrasound to temporarily increase the permeability of the blood vessels in the brain to improve the delivery of therapeutic molecules. Invented by Pr. Alexandre Carpentier and developed in collaboration with the Laboratory of Therapeutic Applications of Ultrasound (Laboratoire Thérapie et Applications Ultrasonores, LabTAU, INSERM) in Lyon, France, SonoCloud is an implant inserted into the skull and activated prior to injection of a therapeutic agent. Several minutes of low-intensity ultrasound opens the blood brain barrier for six hours and increases the concentration of therapeutic molecules in the brain. This ultrasound-induced opening of the blood-brain barrier is a world first; it offers a new treatment option for a wide range of indications, including brain tumors and Alzheimer’s disease.

About Panakès Partners
Panakès Partners is a venture capital investor that finances medical companies, early stage startups and SMEs, with very promising products and great ambition, mainly in Europe and Israel, improving both patient outcomes and healthcare economics. Investments focus on the medical device, diagnostics and healthcare IT fields. Panakès Partners is headquartered in Milan, Italy.
www.panakes.it

About Sham Innovation Santé / Turenne Capital
Launched in July 2014, Sham Innovation Santé is an evergreen Venture Capital Fund controlled and owned by Sham, a French mutual insurance company specialising in insurance and risk management for professionals in the health, social and social-medical sectors and a French leader in civil liability (11,000 members in Europe – France, Italy, Spain, Germany – €2 billion ($2.3bn) in assets under management, 923 employees, revenues of €373.5 million ($424.1M) in 2017). Advised and managed by Turenne Capital, Sham Innovation Santé invests in biotech and medtech companies that are developing breakthrough technologies in the medical and biotechnology fields. Its portfolio – 12 companies – is being gradually built up by new investments in the healthcare and life sciences field, with a target of €50 million ($56.8M).
www.sham.fr / www.turennecapital.com

About Supernova Invest
Supernova Invest is an independent venture capital firm that has strong relationships with the CEA, one of the world’s leading research organisations and with Amundi, the largest asset manager in Europe. Investments focus on companies developing disruptive innovations operating in the life sciences, energy & environment, industrial, microelectronics and digital sectors. Today, Supernova Invest manages or advises five funds totalling €250 million ($284M) and has invested in more than a 100 start ups since 1999. Supernova Invest is based in France.
The investment in CarThera was carried out through the Supernova2 fund.
www.supernovainvest.com

About CarThera
CarThera designs and develops innovative therapeutic ultrasound-based medical devices for treating brain disorders. The company is a spin-off from AP-HP, Greater Paris University Hospitals, the largest hospital group in Europe, and Sorbonne University. CarThera leverages the inventions of Professor Alexandre Carpentier, a neurosurgeon at AP-HP who has achieved worldwide recognition for his innovative developments in treating brain disorders. CarThera developed SonoCloud, an intracranial ultrasound implant that temporarily opens the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Founded in 2010 by Professor Alexandre Carpentier, CarThera is based at the Brain and Spine Institute (Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, ICM) in Paris, France, and has laboratories at the Bioparc Laënnec business incubator in Lyon, France. The company, led by Frederic Sottilini (CEO), works closely with the Laboratory of Therapeutic Applications of Ultrasound (Laboratoire Thérapie et Applications Ultrasonores, LabTAU, INSERM) in Lyon. Since its inception, the company has received support from France’s Ministry of Research, the Ile-de-France region, the Bpifrance public investment bank, Medicen Paris Region and Lyonbiopôle.
www.carthera.eu - @CarThera_

Aileens Pharma S.r.l. Announces €3M in Series A Funding to advance the development of a wave of Innovative Non-Steroidal Treatments for Dermatologic disorders

18 July 2018 - Milan. Aileens Pharma S.r.l. (Aileens), an Italian company dedicated to developing treatments to improve clinical outcomes in patients suffering from dermatological diseases, today announced the completion of a €3M Series A financing to accelerate the development of its platform of topical non-steroidal treatments for atopic dermatitis both in children and adults, as well as other types of dermatological disorders.

The investor syndicate was led by Panakes Partners, alongside Invitalia Ventures. The round aims at completing the formulations, confirming the mechanism of action, carrying on the clinical developments of products treating three of the most diffused dermatological pathologies (Atopic Dermatitis, Seborrheic Dermatitis and Psoriasis), obtaining the CE mark and launching in European markets.

The company founder and CEO, Sonia Longo Sormani, brings a strong background in the dermatology sector, having worked various years in Sinclair Pharmaceuticals, before creating her own company Claride Pharma.

Scientists have discovered that on the skin of patients suffering from dermatitis, there is an imbalance in the composition of existing resident skin flora, also called Microbiome. This imbalance can cause the release or overproduction of irritants that can trigger the disease or make it more acute. The active ingredient developed by Aileens Pharma is supposed to act as a homeostatic agent modulating the skin or mucosa microbiome, thus enhancing its natural protective role and treating the disease.

Sonia Longo Sormani said: “We are thrilled to have two outstanding Italian investors supporting the development of the company and to address together a market opportunity that, only for the treatment of atopic dermatitis, exceeds 4B$ annually and is foreseen to grow over 5.5B$ within the next 5 years”.

“Atopic Dermatitis is a very diffused pathology which affects more than 330 Million patients, of which more than 80% are suffering of mild to moderate forms, in particular children below 10 years. The need for alternative solutions to Topical CorticoSteroids (TCS), which are shown to be effective but with side effects, is still there”, said Barbara Castellano of Panakes Partners.

“Aileens is poised to provide the first non-pharmacological treatment that is able to compete with current invasive therapeutic approaches, which are not well accepted by all patients. Particularly, the solution could fill the existing market gap in pediatric dermatology”, said Sergio Buonanno, CEO of Invitalia Ventures.

As part of the financing, Panakes’ Barbara Castellano, Invitalia’ Svetlana Vashkel as well as industry expert Maurizio Comini (more than 30 years of expertise in the Dermatology Industry), joined the board of Aileens along with Sonia Longo Sormani, CEO and founder of Aileens.


About Aileens Pharma

Aileens Pharma is an Italian company, which has developed innovative topical treatments dedicated to patients suffering from dermatological diseases, aiming to improving the patient's clinical condition and quality of life using patented ingredients acting on the skin microbioma. With headquarters in Milan, Aileens has a strong collaboration with the Laboratory of Clinical Microbiology led by Prof. Roberto Di Marco from UNIMOL – Campobasso. www.aileenspharma.com


About Panakès Partners

Panakès Partners is a Venture Capital investor that finances medical companies, early stage startup and SMEs, with extremely promising products and great ambition, in Europe and Israel, improving both patient outcomes and healthcare economics. Investments focus on the medical device, diagnostics and healthcare IT fields. Panakès Partners is headquartered in Milan, Italy. www.panakes.it


About Invitalia Ventures

Invitalia Ventures is the SGR of Invitalia, the National Agency for inward investment and enterprise development. Invitalia Venture SGR manages the Italia Venture I Fund dedicated to equity investments into innovative SMEs and startups. The fund exclusively co-invests along with national and international private operators. www.invitaliaventures.it




Contact:

info@aileenspharma.com

Medical Microinstruments S.p.A. Announces €20M in Series A Funding to Advance its Robotic Platform for Microsurgery

Medical Microinstruments S.p.A. (MMI), an Italian company dedicated to improve clinical outcomes for patients undergoing microsurgery, today announces the completion of a €20M (approx. $24.5M) Series A financing to accelerate the development of MMI’s groundbreaking robotic platform for microsurgery.

The investor syndicate was led by Andera Partners, formerly known as Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners (EdRIP), with Panakes Partners and Fountain Healthcare, returning Seed investor Sambatech, and two industry veterans Gus Castello, former Senior Vice President of Product Operations for Intuitive Surgical Inc., the world leader in robotic surgery, and John Engels, founder of AxoGen, Inc., a world leader in solutions for peripheral nerve repair in microsurgery.

Giuseppe M. Prisco, CEO of MMI, said, “We are thrilled to have an outstanding group of investors and successful medtech experts supporting the next phase of development of the company and to address together a market opportunity that exceeds $2.5 billion annually.” The round aims at completing product and clinical development, obtaining the CE mark and launching in European markets.

“Surgical robotics is a major trend that has yet to penetrate a number of surgical specialties beyond laparoscopy”, said Olivier Litzka, Partner, Andera Partners. “MMI is poised to provide the first robotic product for open surgery with wristed microinstruments. We are excited to collaborate with MMI as they work to build a great company in an exciting category.”

While robotics has primarily penetrated laparoscopic surgery and more recently orthopedic surgery, microsurgery, used in reconstructive, lymphatic and eye surgeries among others, has remained largely unserved by robotics to date. Microsurgery has seen only incremental advances in optics and instrumentation, with surgical practice being bound to what is manually achievable when working under 5x to 40x optical scaling. MMI is pioneering a disruptive advance in this surgical space by coupling the dexterity of robotically controlled wrist articulation with 5x to 40x motion scaling to match optical magnification.

“Given its outstanding advanced robotics platform, MMI represents a great example of the best Italy has to offer… MMI’s breakthrough technology will help surgeons perform complex microsurgery with highly precise dexterity, motion, and tremor-free control.” said Alessio Beverina, Partner, Panakes Partners.

As part of the financing, Andera Partners’ Olivier Litzka, Panakes’ Alessio Beverina, Fountain’s Justin Lynch as well as industry experts Gus Castello, John Engels and Fabrizio Landi, former CEO and founder of Esaote S.p.A. join the board of MMI together with Carlo Alberto Marcoaldi, Giuseppe M. Prisco and Hannah Teichmann, who co-founded MMI with Massimiliano Simi.


About MMI’s Robotic Platform for Microsurgery

MMI has developed the first teleoperated robotic platform for suturing in open surgery with wristed microinstruments. It offers the surgeon motion scaling and tremor elimination and aims to facilitate existing procedures as well as enable new ones in the domain of microsurgery, from post-oncological and trauma reconstructions to ophthalmology, organ transplantation and pediatric surgery. MMI’s Robotic Platform is an investigational device and is not yet commercially available.


About MMI

Medical Microinstruments S.p.A. (MMI), founded in 2015, is based in Calci (PI), Italy. The company's mission is to help more surgeons around the world to offer more advanced microsurgical procedures, while reducing costs for patients, hospitals and for society at large. www.mmimicro.com


About Andera Partners

Andera Partners is a leading investor in minority investments into privately owned companies. Previously Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, the fund management employs 56 employees and has more than €2 billion under management. Its Life Sciences team of 11 professionals brings together deep experience both in the Life Science industry and in private equity and venture capital. The team has raised more than €800 million through its BioDiscovery franchise and is currently investing out of its € 345 million BioDiscovery 5 fund. Since their inception, BioDiscovery Funds have invested in some 60 privately held companies, of which 16 have been sold and 16 listed on public financial markets, while more than 20 are active in the portfolios.


About Fountain Healthcare

Fountain Healthcare Partners is a life science focused venture capital fund with €176 million ($200 million) under management. Within the life science sector, specific areas of interest to Fountain include specialty pharma, medical devices, biotechnology and diagnostics. The firm deploys the majority of its capital in Europe, with the balance in the United States. Fountain’s main office is in Dublin, Ireland, with a second office in New York. For more information, please visit www.fh-partners.com.


About Panakes Partners

Panakès Partners is a Venture Capital investor that finances medical companies, early stage startup and SMEs, with extremely promising products and great ambition, in Europe and Israel, improving both patient outcomes and healthcare economics. Investments focus on the medical device, diagnostics and healthcare IT fields. Panakès Partners is headquartered in Milan, Italy. www.panakes.it.




Contact:

MMI Micro: www.mmimicro.com
Fountain Healthcare Partners: www.fh-partners.com
Panakès Partners: www.panakes.it

Alesi Surgical raises €6m (£5.2m) to accelerate commercialisation of breakthrough product UltravisionTM

Alesi Surgical Limited, the leading innovator of minimally invasive surgery technologies – including the world-first Ultravision device - has successfully raised a further €6m (£5.2m) funding from both new and existing investors. The new investment comes from two leading med tech European venture capital firms, Panakes Partners and Earlybird, with continued support from Alesi Surgical’s existing shareholders, IP Group plc and Finance Wales Limited.

The funds raised will be used to drive commercial expansion of both Alesi Surgical and Ultravision into the United States and other key markets worldwide, and to undertake additional research and development around the new Ultravision technology.

Alesi Surgical also announces the appointment of three new directors, strengthening its board with key expertise to take the company and its products forward. Joining as non-executive director Phil Cooper previously President at Molnlycke Healthcare, is a recognised leader in global commercialisation and growth of privately owned companies in the med tech sector.

As part of the investment Mr Thom Rasche, Partner at Earlybird and previously Vice President Europe of Ethicon Endosurgery; and Mr Alessio Beverina, Founding Partner at Panakes Partners, will both join the board as investor directors.

Dr Dominic Griffiths, Managing Director of Alesi Surgical said: “Earlybird and Panakes are two highly respected European venture capital companies and in such a competitive funding environment their interest in Alesi and UltravisionTM speaks volumes for our potential. With the three new additions to the board we have expanded our expertise in this market and having four corporate investors places us in a strong position for future growth.”

The funds have been raised following the recent approval of the company’s leading proprietary technology platform, UltravisionTM, by both the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and Japanese Ministry of Health, and the commercial traction it is already gaining in already approved markets in Europe and the Middle East.

The UltravisionTM system is the world’s first use of electrostatic technology to clear the vapour and particulate matter – so called “surgical smoke” – that is generated by modern surgical cutting instruments during abdominal keyhole (laparoscopic) surgery.

The revolutionary medical device produces a low-energy electrostatic charge and can greatly improve visibility for surgeons by actively eliminating surgical smoke as it is created by the cutting instrument. Minimising healthcare professionals’ exposure to surgical smoke is increasingly important worldwide because of concerns over the health risks of long-term exposure.

The technology also benefits the patient as it minimises the amount of cold, dry carbon dioxide gas – used to create a working space inside the abdomen – that a patient is exposed to during the keyhole procedure. Excessive use of carbon dioxide contributes to cardiovascular problems, complications in anesthesia, post-surgical pain and longer recovery time for the patient.

Thom Rasche, Partner of Earlybird, said: “Obscuring of the surgical view during the laparoscopic procedure is not only cumbersome to surgeons but adds an additional risk to the safety of the procedure and to the staff being exposed to the smoke. Alesi has developed a fabulous, simple and very effective solution to help address these risks.”

Alessio Beverina said: “I am delighted to support the Alesi development. Its unique patented technology is a smart and simple solution for a real problem for laparoscopic surgeons and nurses in the operating room, both in standard and robotic operations. Whilst Alesi’s Research and Development product pipeline promises to be a game changer in the sector.”

Ends




Notes to editors:

For more information, contact James Barton at 2B Communications on 07955 227046 or james@2bcommunications.co.uk


1. Alesi Surgical develops and commercialises products that improve the safety, efficiency and outcomes of advanced surgical procedures.

2. The company was founded in 2009 as a spin-out from the Welsh Institute for Minimal Access Therapy (WIMAT), with the vision of becoming a world leader in surgical devices. Part of Cardiff University, WIMAT runs multi-disciplinary training courses across a range of surgical and medical specialties and is the busiest multi-disciplinary training centre in the United Kingdom.

3. For more information, visit www.alesi-surgical.com

4. Alesi Surgical is based at Cardiff Medicentre, the dedicated medical, healthcare, and life sciences business incubator located on the University Hospital of Wales campus. The latter is also home to Cardiff University's School of Medicine. Cardiff University is Wales’s leading Higher Education Institution for innovation, ranked 7th in the UK and 45th in Europe for innovation by Thomson Reuters.

5. Finance Wales was established by the Welsh Government in 2001 and provides commercial funding to small and medium-sized businesses throughout Wales to enable them to realise their potential for innovation and growth. The company is part of the Finance Wales Group and in 2015-16 the Group invested £63 million through 268 debt-equity investments in growing businesses. The Finance Wales Group, one of the UK’s largest SME investors, has in excess of £990 million of funds under management across all SME investment fund and the Help to Buy – Wales scheme. The Group has invested more than £484 million through more than 4,018 investments.

6. IP Group is a leading intellectual property commercialisation company which focuses on evolving great ideas, mainly from its partner universities, into world-changing businesses. The Group has pioneered a unique approach to developing these ideas and the resulting businesses by providing access to business building expertise, capital (through its 100%-owned FCA-authorised subsidiary IP Capital), networks, recruitment and business support. IP Group has a strong track record of success and its portfolio comprises holdings in approximately 100 early-stage to mature businesses across four main sectors -- Biotech, Cleantech, Healthcare and Technology. The Company is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange under the code IPO.

For more information, please visit our website at www.ipgroupplc.com .

7. About Panakes Partners

Panakès Partners is a Venture Capital investor that finances medical companies, early stage startup and SMEs, with extremely promising products and great ambition, in Europe and Israel, improving both patient outcomes and healthcare economics. Investments focus on the medical device, diagnostics and healthcare IT fields. Panakès Partners is headquartered in Milan, Italy. www.panakes.it .

8. About Earlybird

Earlybird is a venture capital investor focused on European technology companies. Founded in 1997, Earlybird invests in all growth and development phases of a company. Amongst the most experienced venture investors in Europe, Earlybird offers its portfolio companies not only financial resources, but also strategic and operational support as well as access to an international network and capital markets. With over EUR 850 million under management, six IPOs and 22 trade sales, Earlybird is one of the most successful venture capital firms in Europe.

For further information: www.earlybird.com,
Twitter: www.twitter.com/EarlybirdVC,
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/earlybird-venture-capital
or Facebook: www.facebook.com/EarlybirdVC

Vivasure Medical Announces €16.2M ($18.3M) in Financing to Advance Commercialization of Closure Device in European Union and United States

Vivasure Medical™, a company developing a novel bioabsorbable technology for percutaneous vessel closure, today announced that the company has completed a Series C financing of €16.2M ($18.3M). The round was led by LSP (Life Sciences Partners) of The Netherlands, investing from its LSP Health Economics Fund, and co-led by Evonik Venture Capital (Germany), alongside Panakes Partners (Italy) with returning Series A and B investors led by Fountain Healthcare Partners, Ireland. The funding will support European commercialization of the company’s PerQseal™ technology to meet the growing demand for absorbable, percutaneous vessel closure products, as well as execution of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory study.

The Vivasure Closure Device is the first product from the company’s PerQseal™ technology platform, and is the only approved fully bioabsorbable, sutureless and entirely synthetic option to close large-bore arteriotomies that result from percutaneous transcatheter procedures, including transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) and endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR). The device has been successfully evaluated in clinical studies, with patients treated in four European countries, achieving 97 percent device technical success with no major device related complications. Long-term follow-up data has been collected to 12 months post-procedure, and CE Mark was received in January 2016. The global market for large arteriotomy closure devices is growing rapidly and is expected to be more than $500 million by 2021.

“Patients with aortic valve stenosis, abdominal aortic aneurysms and other serious conditions are increasingly treated with minimally invasive percutaneous procedures,” said Gerard Brett, co-founder and CEO of Vivasure Medical. “The Vivasure closure device is designed to be easy to use, allowing the surgeon and interventional physician to provide a complete repair at the access site, without leaving metal implants, sutures, or exogenous tissue behind. Our goal is to facilitate improved therapeutic results for patients over the open-surgery alternative, faster recovery times, and cost savings for the healthcare system.”

“We are excited to support this innovative company and its vision of improving outcomes for patients as it moves into commercialization in the European Union and enters the United States,” said Anne Portwich, partner, LSP. “We look forward to working closely with Vivasure as the company continues to work toward gathering more data through clinical studies that will facilitate expansion of adoption in European markets and drive U.S. approval and commercialization of its first product.”

An arteriotomy is a puncture hole in a vessel in the groin that provides access to arteries for catheter-based procedures. The proprietary Vivasure closure device offers physicians an easy-to-use and fully percutaneous (through the skin) alternative to surgical cut-down and sutured repair via a 3- to 5- centimeter incision for large-bore arteriotomies.


About Vivasure Medical
Based in Galway, Ireland, Vivasure Medical has developed a patented bioabsorbable implant platform technology for applications in vessel closure. Its first product from this PerQseal platform features a bioabsorbable implant and percutaneous delivery system, designed to close large arteriotomies. For more information visit www.vivasuremedical.com.

About LSP
LSP (Life Sciences Partners) is an independent European investment firm, providing financing for private and public life sciences companies. LSP’s mission is to connect investors to inventors, focusing on unmet medical needs. Since the late 1980s, LSP’s management has invested in about 100 innovative enterprises, many of which have grown to become leaders of the global life sciences industry. With over €1 billion of investment capital raised to date and offices in Amsterdam, Munich and Boston, LSP is one of Europe’s leading life sciences investors. The LSP Health Economics Fund invests in innovative products that can increase the quality of health care, while reducing the cost of care. For more information, please visit: www.lspvc.com.

About Evonik VC
Evonik in the context of its venture capital activities wants to invest in total €100 million in promising start-ups with innovative technologies and in leading, specialized venture capital funds. Regional focuses on Europe, the United States and Asia. Currently, Evonik holds stakes in nine start-ups and four funds. More information is available at http://venturing.evonik.com/

About Panakes Partners
Panakès Partners is a Venture Capital investor that finances medical companies, early stage startup and SMEs, with extremely promising products and great ambition, in Europe and Israel, improving both patient outcomes and healthcare economics. Investments focus on the medical device, diagnostics and healthcare IT fields. Panakès Partners is headquartered in Milan, Italy. www.panakes.it.

About Fountain Healthcare Partners
Fountain Healthcare Partners fund is the largest dedicated life science venture capital fund in Ireland, with €176m under management. Exclusively focused on the life science sector, specific areas of interest to Fountain include specialty pharma, medical devices, biotechnology and diagnostics. The firm deploys the majority of its capital in Europe, with the balance in the United States. Fountain’s main office is in Dublin, Ireland, with a second office in New York. For more information, please visit www.fh-partners.com.

Media contact:
Nicole Osmer, +1 (650) 454-0504
nicole@nicoleosmer.com

Seventeen, a startup aiming to disrupt loco-regional therapies for solid tumors, raised a Series A for more than €4 million

Panakès Partners and Innogest invested in interventional oncology

Panakès Partners and Innogest led a €4.2 million financing round in Seventeen, an innovative startup based in Naples (Italy), which operates in the interventional oncology medtech sector.

Seventeen has developed an innovative approach to ensure loco-regional treatment of some non resectable solid tumors or tumors with high post-surgical local recurrence incidence. This technology allows to ablate or destroy the tumor mass through the intratumoral injection of biocompatible glue loaded with radioactive particles able to maximize the radiotherapeutic effect by reducing at the same time the side effects.

Professor Francesco Izzo, researcher, surgeon at Istituto Pascale, Medical Director of the Complex Structure of Abdominal Oncology Surgery unit with Hepatobiliary specialization at Cancer Institute of Naples and Principal Investigator of the new methodology, has already led experimentations aimed at obtaining the CE mark. With the new funding the company will further finalize the development and the clinical validation phase.

The entrance of the two Venture Capitalists allows Prof. Izzo to be supported by a team with extensive international experience in the field of oncology and clinical research: Massimo Romanelli (former Oncology Division, product manager for AngioDynamics in Italy) will be the COO of the company, while Lucio Fumi (former Director, Interventional Oncology BTG and Terumo) will be Chairman. Laura Iris Ferro (founder and former Ceo of Gentium) will join the company as independent director.

«The interventional oncology segment is one of the main targets of our fund; we are proud to have invested in an ambitious and promising project such as Seventeen», said Diana Saraceni, co-founder and General Partner at Panakès. «The company will shortly bring to the market a medical instrument dedicated to the treatment of some solid tumors otherwise inoperable or ones with high incidence of local recurrences. Seventeen, although only in its startup phase, has already received interest from some of the very acquisitive sector companies in the field. Moreover, beyond the indisputable financial interest of the transaction, there is also an ethical aspect that has further motivated us».

«We are excited to invest in Seventeen, a startup of a great potential. The company has developed a technology that could offer a solution for patients with certain types of cancers for which there are no effective therapeutic options today», said Claudio Rumazza, Partner at Innogest. «We are impressed by the preclinical results obtained so far and we believe that the pool of talents already involved in the project, along with additional resources that the company will be able to attract with our support, place Seventeen in an optiman position to disrupt cancer treatment through loco-regional radiotherapy».

«A new phase starts for Seventeen. With our main product close to the CE mark certification, additional resources and expertise will be needed to bring the product to market», said Prof. Francesco Izzo. «With this operation I am confident to have helped the company to adopt all the necessary tools to ensure success, I hope to see the product on the market soon, since the developed methodology allows us to treat a large number of patients, currently without therapeutic options».

Panakès Partners (www.panakes.it, contact@panakes.it)
Panakès Partners is a Venture Capital investor that finances medical companies, early stage startups and SMEs, with extremely promising products and great ambition, in Europe and Israel, improving both patient outcomes and healthcare economics. Investments focus on the medical device, diagnostics and healthcare IT fields. Panakès Partners is headquartered in Milan, Italy.

Innogest (www.innogest.it, press@innogest.it)
Innogest is a Venture Capital firm founded in 2005 with offices in Turin, Milan and San Francisco. With 180€ million of capital under management, Innogest focuses on promising seed and early stage ventures developing medical devices, diagnostics and digital health and is particularly active in oncology, cardiology and neurology.

Echolight: from the South of Italy the first investment of Panakes Partners and the fifth investment of Invitalia Ventures.

A 4M € Series A round in Echolight, the startup that revolutionize the diagnosis of osteoporosis

Panakès and Invitalia Ventures have co-led an investment round of 4 €/ML in Echolight, an innovative SME operating in the “medtech” sector, that has been established in 2010 as a Spin-off of the CNR of Lecce

Echolight has developed EchoS, the first non-invasive technology for early diagnosis of osteoporosis disease. This technology may exceed the existing gold standard, currently represented by the X-Ray diagnosis. The EchoS device has been patented at national and international level and received the ISO and EC mark certification.

EchoS offers different advantages since it is capable to combine the advantages of the two current main technologies, DXA and QUS: it is radiation free, it can assess the bone quality, it is low cost and it does not require any certified operator and axial sites (spine and hip) assessment. It also offers an extremely user-friendly software that allows doctors to conduct diagnosis in a few minutes and improve clinical assessments.

The founding team of Echolight, which is composed of Sergio Casciaro, Matteo Pernisa, Stefano Pernisa, Ernesto Casciaro and Francesco Conversano has an extensive experience in the ultrasound bone densitometry.

Previously Echolight has already received a Seed investment from Life Sciences Capital S.p.A, a venture capital investment vehicle established in 2005 with the aim to invest in the Italian health sector with a focus on the medical technologies.

“The new funds available will allow the diffusion of our technology and the establishment of EchoS as a new reference for people affected by the osteoporosis disease, who will have an easy access to the diagnosis, now available also at primary care, and to the treatment of this “silent” disease that remains hugely under-diagnosed. We will support in this way the prevention and reduction of the invalidating bone fracture events, with significant cost savings for the health care system and important improvements in the care delivery and patient quality of life” enthusiastically commented the president and co-founder of Echolight, Sergio Casciaro.

Fabrizio Landi, founder and General Partner at Panakes, declared: “Echolight has developed a next generation ultrasound echo-based bone densitometer that makes early detection and more accurate monitoring of osteoporosis, directly on the more important points, spine and hip. The non-invasiveness may be the key advantage to spread the diagnostics earlier, as it was the case for echography in the past as a replacement of x-ray in other applications.”

“We are proud to invest in Echolight together with Panakès, because it is a startup of unquestionable value. The technology for the diagnosis of osteoporosis - the disease that affects more than 300 million of people worldwide – will have a huge impact through its accessibility, disease prevention and earlier diagnosis, with the reduction of the waiting list (that today can be up to 1,5 year in Italy) and a cost reduction to around two third.

These advantages will then offer a strong contribution to the healthcare system sustainability” stated Salvo Mizzi, CEO Invitalia Ventures.

About Echolight
Echolight is a high-tech research biomed company, incorporated in Italy, for the development of innovative technologies in the medical diagnostics arena. Our mission is to provide the world medical community with the very first comprehensive non-invasive and office-based solution for the early diagnosis of osteoporosis. Echolight will make the early detection of Osteoporosis more accurate and easily accessible to meet both clinician’s and patient’s needs everywhere. Echolight is in compliance with the standard: UNI CEI EN ISO 13485:2012; ISO 13485:2003; CE Mark medical Device Class IIa.

www.echolight.it

About Panakès Partners
Panakès Partners invests is a Venture Capital investor that finances medical companies, early stage startup and SMEs, with extremely promising products and great ambition, in Europe and Israel, improving both patient outcomes and healthcare economics. Investments focus on the medical device, diagnostics and healthcare IT fields. Panakès Partners is headquartered in Milan, Italy.

www.panakes.it
Contact: contact@panakes.it

About Invitalia Ventures
Invitalia Ventures manages Italia Venture I Fund with the aim to bring support to the Italian Venture Industry. The co-investment strategy of the Fund is focused on round A investments in the best Italian innovative Startups/SMEs together with national and international private investors.

www.invitaliaventures.it
Contact: info@invitaliaventures.it

Barbara Castellano brings a significant 20-yearsexperience in Medtech, in particular in Cardiovascular, having held corporate senior positions at Sorin (now Livanova) and CID Cardiovascular (now Alvimedica). By leading strategic marketing, business development, clinical, quality and regulatory departments, she developed and brought innovative cardiovascular technologies in the market. Furthermore, in the last year, as CEO of an advisory firm, she has developed a strong experience inthe medtech startup world, successfully raising over €15m venture capital funding for European and Israeli innovative medical technologies.
"We are proud to have Barbara joining our team, strengthening our expertise in the medtech sector" commented Fabrizio Landi,.Panakès Managing Partner"Both our startup investee companies and our investors will benefit from her outstanding professional and personal qualities".
Barbara Castellano stated: “I am extremely excited to joinPanakès Partners. The medtech world is changing fast, with new trends and a lot of innovation coming through to solve unmet needs. We will support startups with great technologies, helping them growing and demonstrating their value in the market.”
Panakès Partners, founded by Alessio Beverina, FabrizioLandi and Diana Saraceni, announced the first closing of the fund few weeks ago.

At the end of 2015, Panakès Partners SGR SpA has obtained the required authorization by the competent authorities and has launched its first Fund, Panakès FundI. Investors in the Fund comprise a unique blend of major Italian and International investors: corporate and private investors in the sector (Menarini, Cogliati – Elemaster, Colombo – SapioLife, Rovati - RottaPharmBiotech) as well as leading financial institutions such as European Investment Fund and Fondo Italiano d’Investimento. Panakès I is the first Italian EU Venture Capital Fund (EUVECA). After its second closing in January, Panakèstargets a new closing in March.
The Venture firm will finance highly innovative companies in the Medtech sector, innovating in particular in therapeutic medical devices, diagnostic devices and kits and healthcare IT companies. Panakès will focus primarily on startup and commercial stage companies, with extremely promising products and great ambition, providing capital towards clinical demonstration and revenues growth. Panakès focuses on companies addressing unmet clinical needs, with strong intellectual property, at prototype level (or even CE marked products) run by experienced management teams.
"Panakès is focused on funding companies with innovation that can be quantified in terms of both improvements in patient outcomes as well as healthcare economics. Italy and Europe represent the best ground for these opportunities, that can deliver also excellent financial returns," commented Panakès Managing Partner, FabrizioLandi. "We are excited to launch our fund, and appreciate the support of all our institutional and corporate investors for our strategy and team." Pier Luigi Gilibert, Chief Executive EIF, stated: “Medtech is an area where innovation can deliver real results and we are proud to be investing in the research and development of new devices for this sector, where Europe has a strong competitive advantage compared to other geographies. The EU has a role to play in supporting this growing market and our commitment in Panakès is an example of how together we can invest in companies which will target healthcare solutions. We are confident that the team at Panakès and its focused strategy, will create new opportunities in the Medtech arena.”
"I am particularly satisfied with the result of fund raising reached by Panakés Fund , whose idea was born in the offices of the Italian Fund" said Gabriele Cappellini , CEO of the Fondo Italiano degli Investimenti SGR . "The investment in Panakés Fund by FII" continued Cappellini ,"is part of our strategy to support the creation of a sustainable venture capital market, through the subscription of funds managed by independent teams with sector-specific expertise and high professionalism. In light of this and the experience of its founders we trust that Panakés can be an operator of reference for the support to the best start-ups operating in the medtech sector".
Panakès partners was founded by Alessio Beverina, Fabrizio Landi and Diana Saraceni in 2015. The investment team combines a high level of successful venture capital experience, appropriate scientific andmedical competence and significant operational and investment experience in the Medical Technologies sector. Alessio Beverina was Partner at Sofinnova Partners, one of the leading Venture Capital in the Life Sciences sector; Fabrizio Landi was the founder and CEO of Esaote, which became a leader in the diagnostic space; Diana Saraceniwas founder and Partner in charge of the Life Sciences investments at 360 Capital Partners, the leading Italian Venture Capital firm.
The Panakès team also comprises a very complementary and internationally recognized Advisory Board, with successful Italian entrepreneurs and experts in the Life Sciences area: Laura Iris Ferro, founder and ex CEO of Gentium, Giuseppe Prisco, former MP of Intuitive surgical, Lorenzo Tallarigo, former COO Eli Lilly, and early stage Investor and board member of Intercept, Emanuele Gatti, former CEO EMEA Fresenius Care, Gabriele Cogliati, CEO of Elemaster, Antonello Biscini, VP business development of Menarini Diagnostics and Maurizio Colombo, CEO of SapioLife.
Panakès derives from the greek Panakeia, who was the goddess of Universal remedy, said to have a potion with which she healed the sick.