Providence Medical Technology, Inc. of Lafayette, California, just announced the closing of a $6.8 million Series C round of financing to advance the company’s cervical fusion technology.
Providence Medical Raises $6.8 Million for Cervical Fusion Launch
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The new funding, according to Providence CEO, Jeff Smith, comes as the company is launching its DTRAX technology in the U.S. with over 15 independent distributors and over 150 sales representatives. “The acceptance of indirect decompression and fusion among surgeons who treat cervical radiculopathy has been extremely encouraging. With this investment to support execution of our business plan, we look forward to building a differentiated franchise.”
Providence initiated U.S. surgeon training in November 2013 following 510(k) clearance earlier in the year of DTRAX Cervical Cage, a novel implant and delivery system for cervical fusion procedures.
Proceeds from this round are targeted to fund investment in U.S. sales, marketing, training, and clinical activities, including training additional distributors, hiring direct sales employees, and initiating prospective clinical trials.
DTRAX Spinal System
The DTRAX Spinal System is a set of single-use disposable instruments designed for use with a range of spinal implants. The system enables access to the spine through posterior surgical incisions, and preparation of the bony elements and joints. Spinal fusion with the system, according to the company, does not require removal of bone, soft tissue, or stabilizing ligaments.
In addition to the cervical cage, the company also offers DTRAX Graft, a structural allograft implanted in the cervical facets to support posterior fusion. When implanted, the graft provides an indirect decompression of the nerve roots by distracting the facets and opening the neuroforamen. They also have a sterile, single-use facet system kit containing all the tools and implants that are needed to perform a single level surgery. The system includes a proprietary, expandable, titanium implant that is used to provide indirect decompression and fusion of cervical facets.
The company previously announced that five U.S. patents have been issued in the past 12 months protecting their technologies, bringing the total number of U.S. patents issued to the company by the U.S. Patent Office to seven.
The most recent patent (U.S. Patent No. 8, 623, 054, “Vertebral Joint Implants and Delivery Tools, ” issued on January 7, 2014) describes, among other things, the company’s methods and instruments for minimally invasively routing an implant into the spinal facet joint via a posterior approach.
Stanmore Medical Investments led the round through its MedVest Fund One, and was joined by Aphelion Capital and RCT Ventures.
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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