CoAxia raises $21.5 million to complete trial of stroke device

CoAxia NeuroFlo catheter

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota –The medical device company CoAxia said it’s raised $21.5 million to complete clinical trials on its acute ischemic stroke treatment, submit results to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and begin marketing the product, NeuroFlo.

The company expects to submit its request for pre-market approval sometime next year.

CoAxia thinks its NeuroFlo technology could be part of basic care for 500,000 ischemic stroke patients, breaking into a market worth more than $1 billion. Instead of attacking the brain clot, its catheter diverts blood flow from the lower parts of the body and pushes it into the brain to increase blood flow and restore function and save effected parts of the brain. The company, based in Maple Grove just outside Minneapolis, said its approach can be used up 12 hours after a stroke — twice as long as many treatments — and cuts down on risks of cerebral hemorrhage that come with removing a brain clot.

CoAxia has spent the last four years enrolling patients in its 500-member pivotal trial to test NeuroFlo and expects to complete enrollment by early 2010, according to a company release.

This latest round, a Series D, was lead by French venture firm Sofinnova Partners, but included all of CoAxia’s other previous major investors: Affinity Capital Management, Baird Venture Partners, Canaan Ventures Partners, Johnson and Johnson Development Corporation, and Prism Ventureworks. The company has raised more than $66 million in private equity, according to company press releases and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Along with completing its pivotal trial, the funding will also let the company see how NeuroFlo works with other stroke devices and drugs.