Chronic Pain Technology Company Gains $3.5M Series B Funds

Neuros Medical Inc., a company in Cleveland developing a university-discovered electronic pain relief technology, says it raised $3.5 million in series B venture funds, the second round of financing after start-up. Boston Scientific and Glengary LLC led the round, with new investors RiverVest Venture Partners, LLC, Blue Tree Allied Angels, and ModelVest joining current investors Case Tech Ventures, JumpStart Ventures, NorthCoast Angel Fund, Ohio Tech Angel Fund, Queen City Angel Fund III, Physician Investment Group.

The company is developing a technology called electrical nerve block that aims to eliminate chronic pain, such as residual limb pain in amputees, chronic post surgical pain, and chronic migraine. The treatments deliver high-frequency stimulation to sensory nerves in the peripheral nervous system to block chronic pain.

The system consists of an electrode placed around a peripheral nerve and powered by a pacemaker-size generator implanted into the chest cavity, abdomen, or lower leg. The company says the generator operates in a much higher frequency range than conventional neurostimulation devices, and thus can stop nerve activity to completely block the pain, rather than masking the pain signal.

In November 2011, Neuros Medical received an Investigational Device Exemption from the Food and Drug Administration, allowing the company to begin a pilot clinical trial of electrical nerve block to treat amputees with residual limb pain; Neuros Medical says the trial is underway. An April 2011 feasibility study reported the technology reduced pain in four out of five patients, in some cases to zero. The company says nearly one million patients in the U.S. suffer from chronic amputation pain.

Kevin Kilgore and Niloy Bhadra, with the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland conducted the research behind the technology, which the university patented and licensed to Neuros Medical. Case Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital and technology validation fund at Case Western Reserve University and JumpStart Inc., a venture development organization in Northeast Ohio, provided $375,000 seed capital in March 2009. The company raised $1.8 million in its series A round in October 2009.

Read more:

• NIH Grant to Fund R&D on Pain Meds With Fewer Side Effects
• J&J, University to Partner on Spider Venom Therapy for Pain
• FDA Funds Evaluation of Pain Drug Clinical Trial Methods
• FDA Approves Opioid Analgesic for Chronic Pain

Hat tip: Fortune/Term Sheet

Photo: Sasha Wolff/Flickr

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