Cala Health, the non-invasive bioelectronic medicine leader, announced it has completed the initial closing of an oversubscribed $50 million growth round, co-led by Vertex Growth Fund and Nexus NeuroTech Ventures. All existing Cala investors participated in the round, including Action Potential, Johnson & Johnson (through its corporate venture capital organization, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc.), Lightstone, Lux Capital, GV (Google Ventures), OSF Ventures, Ascension Ventures, TriVentures, Reimagined Ventures, Peak6 and Fiscus.
“This round of funding will propel Cala’s commercialisation trajectory, notably with the recent positive Medicare Coverage Determination for Cala TAPS™ (Transcutaneous Afferent Patterned Stimulation) Therapy. It allows us to broaden patient and physician awareness of this effective and innovative treatment,” said Deanna Harshbarger, Cala Chief Executive Officer. “We are very excited about the strong support from both our legacy and new investors who believe in our vision and first in class, on-demand technology to address tremor relief.”
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Cala is continuing to build strong clinical evidence to expand patient access for our neurostimulation therapy. The results of a study by CVS Health, presented at the Movement Disorders Congress this year, concluded that TAPS therapy offers substantial benefits for patients with essential tremor (ET) in reducing ET-related healthcare resource utilization (HCRU), healthcare costs and improving clinical outcomes.
ET impacts over 7 million people in the United States and is characterised by uncontrollable movement that can make critical daily activities very difficult. Drugs are most used to treat ET, but they can cause a range of unwanted side effects such as fatigue, nausea and depression and may not provide desired outcomes. Surgical options like Deep Brain Stimulation or Focused Ultrasound ablation can be effective but are invasive procedures that carry the risk of potentially irreversible side effects.
The Cala kIQ System with TAPS™ Therapy is the only non-invasive, FDA-cleared, wearable device that delivers effective therapy for action hand tremor relief in people with essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease. The TAPS device is clinician-prescribed and clinically proven to safely and effectively reduce action hand tremors. The Cala kIQ device treats tremor by sensing each patient’s unique tremor signature and delivering individualized stimulation to the nerves on the wrist that then reach the brain to counteract tremor.
