The Irish start-up has received FDA approval to trial its medical product after promising results in an Australian study.
Medtech start-up ProVerum has raised €30m in a series A funding round to help it pursue regulatory approval for its medical products in Europe and the US.
The investment round was co-led by Gilde Healthcare Partners and Lightstone Ventures, including participation from existing investors. This follows the start-up’s successful application for funding and mentorship from the European Innovation Council Accelerator in October 2021.
The Trinity College Dublin spin-out is developing technology to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), which is an enlargement of the prostate gland that causes difficulty with urination. Its ProVee device is a nitinol expander that gently re-shapes the enlarged prostate to alleviate the symptoms caused by BPH.
ProVee is designed to be safely deployed in a doctor’s office setting in a simple procedure under local anaesthesia. ProVerum received approval from the US Food and Drink Administration (FDA) to commence trials, after it demonstrated promising results in a feasibility study in Australia.
In the Australian study at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, ProVee was successfully deployed in patients, all of whom showed immediate and durable improvement in BPH symptoms with no serious side effects detected through two years of follow up.
“The strong investor support from both Gilde Healthcare and Lightstone Ventures further underscores the opportunity and the progress ProVerum has made thus far.” CEO Paul Bateman said.
“We are looking forward to bringing our patient-friendly solution to market in order to offer BPH sufferers a simple, safe and effective treatment in the doctor’s office.”
As part of the funding round, Caroline Gaynor of Lightstone Ventures and Henry Zubaida of Gilde Healthcare Partners will join the ProVerum board of directors. The company also announced the appointment of Dave Amerson as chair of the board.
Amerson has more than 30 years’ experience in the development and commercialisation of novel medical devices in the field of urology and was previously CEO of medical equipment manufacturer Neotract.
Last April, ProVerum’s medical device was one of 29 projects focused on disruptive technologies that was awarded funding from the Irish Government.
