With FDA clearance for its flagship product secured and a U.S. launch under way, Centerline Biomedical’s current focus is twofold: bringing its surgical navigation technology into more operating rooms around the world and expanding its indications into a broader range of surgical procedures.
The task of juggling that dual focus just got somewhat smoother, as Centerline announced on Monday the close of a series B equity financing that’ll bolster all of its ongoing endeavors.
The $33 million funding was led by Cleveland Clinic, from which the company was spun out in 2014. GE Healthcare also threw its weight behind Centerline in the fundraising round, joined by RIK Enterprises, JobsOhio, Jumpstart Ventures and G2 Group Ventures.
The new backing far outweighs Centerline’s previous fundraising efforts, which include a $10 million venture round that closed in early 2020, plus a handful of grants from the National Institutes of Health’s Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the most recent of which arrived months apart in 2019 and 2020 and totaled $1.5 million each.
In addition to expanding the physical and surgical footprint of its Intra-Operative Positioning System, or IOPS, Centerline said it would use the series B funding to bulk up its repository of clinical evidence.
IOPS comprises a GPS-like surgical navigation system to provide real-time 3D guidance for endovascular procedures. Algorithms embedded in the system build a detailed map of each patient’s vascular system, which can then be used alongside sensors and electromagnetic tracking technologies during a procedure to give surgeons a detailed visual reference throughout the surgery.
Beyond improving the accuracy of endovascular procedures, Centerline says the IOPS technology can also hugely cut down on the time it takes to perform the procedures—with studies showing that surgeries using 3D navigation take about half the time of those relying on traditional 2D imaging methods—and, in the process, can reduce radiation exposure for both patients and healthcare providers compared to standard X-ray fluoroscopy.
The system was cleared by the FDA in 2019. That clearance allows IOPS to be used in minimally invasive endovascular procedures to treat blockages and dissections in the descending aorta, which is responsible for sending blood to the rest of the body.
Centerline has already begun rolling out IOPS to certain sites in the U.S., and the company said it plans to expand into Europe and other international locations beginning in 2023.
Meanwhile, Centerline also has a stacked slate of new indications for the technology currently in its R&D pipeline. Those include plans to adapt IOPS to be used in peripheral artery disease treatment and in other structural heart and neurovascular procedures. The company is also exploring a range of other unspecific indications for the technology, both vascular and non-vascular.