Catheter infection treatment startup Pursuit Vascular is raising $1.03 million with a mix of options and debt, roughly half of which has already been raised, according to a recent regulatory filing.
The money will be used to file a 510(k) application in the summer, said president and CEO Doug Killion in an email. He added the company has three employees, along with five contractors. Before this round, the company had raised under $1 million.
Pursuit Vascular has developed the ClearGuard platform technology whose first application will target hemodialysis patients prone to catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSIs). In an earlier interview with MedCity News shortly after he became CEO in June last year, Killion said that CRBSI infections are a huge drain on the healthcare system, in addition to being a deadly risk to dialysis patients who already have compromised renal functions.
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Reducing those infections are therefore imperative and Pursuit Vascular’s device aims to do just that. Here’s how it works, Killion explained at the time:
Currently, dialysis patients come in and have their catheter caps removed prior to the treatment beginning. Any stagnant fluid is removed with a syringe and the patient is then hooked up to the dialysis machine, which purifies the blood over several hours. Once the treatment is over, a heparin saline solution is injected into the catheter to push back any blood inside the catheter in the patient’s bloodstream. Then a new cap is put on the catheter and the process is complete. But until the next session, the patient is sweating and the catheter hub will get dirty, which increases the chance of an infection.
But if the company’s device is used, instead of a regular cap to close the catheter after the dialysis is completed, the patient will get a cap whose tip swells when inserted in the catheter and elutes antimicrobial material into the catheter, which keeps it clean and free of bacteria.
Killion said in Europe an antimicrobial liquid is inserted following a dialysis treatment that is highly effective in reducing CRBSIs, but there are safety concerns because of fear that the liquid may seep into the patient’s bloodstream.
“That’s the reason the liquid is not approved in the U.S. and probably never will be,” he said.
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But he believes that the ClearGuard would be able to replicate the efficacy of the product in reducing CRBSIs.
Now, Killion is already looking ahead. Pursuit Vascular plans to conduct a post-marketing clinical trial in 2013 to prove the device’s ability to reduce CRBSIs, he said in an email.
