Spineguard completes $15 million funding

Dateline: 2 July 2009

Delta Partners invests in SpineGuard. Irish surgeon’s invention is lead product.

DUBLIN, July 2nd, 2009 — SpineGuard, a medical device start-up selling PediGuard®, co-invented by Professor Ciarán Bolger (Beaumont Hospital), announced today that it has raised $4 million from Delta Partners.

The $4 million investment by Delta Partners completes a first round of VC funding in SpineGuard totaling $15 million from Crédit Agricole Private Equity (lead), Innoven Partenaires (co-lead), and A Plus Finance. Co-founded this year by Pierre Jérôme and Stéphane Bette, former executives at Medtronic Sofamor-Danek and SpineVision, SpineGuard’s primary objective is to establish its FDA-cleared and CE Marked PediGuard device as the standard of care for safer pedicle screw placement in spine surgery.

“This additional funding will fortify our efforts to establish PediGuard as a standard of care for safer spine surgery,” said Pierre Jérôme, CEO of SpineGuard. “Our novel device is progressively emerging as a compelling solution to the widespread clinical need for safer pedicle screw placement.”

“I am delighted that SpineGuard is fully funded” said Professor Ciarán Bolger, “because I believe that PediGuard will become a standard of care. I am very pleased to have developed a device that significantly enhances patient safety and also protects and assists surgeons."

“SpineGuard has an established and stable management team with deep experience in the fast-growing spinal surgery markets in the U.S. and worldwide. PediGuard is a very exciting product and has the potential to become a standard tool in making spinal surgery safer for both patients and surgeons. We look forward to supporting the company and team as they build out PediGuard over the coming months and years,” added Dr Joe Mason, Partner, Delta Partners.

Nearly one million spine procedures using pedicle screws were performed last year. According to published studies, pedicle screws show high rates of misplacements—as high as 40 percent—which can lead to a number of serious complications for patients, including quadriplegia. Consequently, liability risks for spine surgeons are high.

Several peer-reviewed publications now validate the value proposition of PediGuard for spine professionals and their patients: pedicle breach anticipation plus reduction of radiation exposure and surgery time. It has a stake in the ground on all continents: impressive ramping-up of sales in the U.S., a strong base in Europe, a great start in Latin America, and significant interest from the Pacific Rim. SpineGuard is partnering with the best distributors to allow more spine surgeons throughout the world to use PediGuard and more patients to benefit from a safer spine stabilization.

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About Delta Partners

Delta Partners is among the most active early-stage venture capital investors in Europe. Established in 1994 and with €230 million under management in 60 companies, the firm focuses on investing in early-stage technology companies across ICT and Healthcare, primarily Medical Technology. Current investments include Miracor Medical Systems GmbH, Genable Technologies Ltd., Glysure Ltd., Neoss Ltd., Heartscape Technologies Inc., and Advanced Surgical Concepts Ltd. The partners’ backgrounds in start-ups, operations, strategy and finance complement the drive and ambition of entrepreneurial management teams.

About PediGuard®

Co-invented by Maurice Bourlion, Ph.D., and Ciaran Bolger, M.D., Ph.D., PediGuard is the world’s first and only handheld device capable of alerting surgeons to potential pedicular or vertebral breaches. Real-time feedback is provided via audio and visual signals. Nearly 8,000 procedures have been performed with PediGuard in 25 countries. Two multi-center clinical studies about PediGuard have been published: one by Ciaran Bolger, M.D., Ph.D. et al., in the European Spine Journal, and the other by Randy Betz, M.D. et al., in the Temple University Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine. These two studies demonstrated that PediGuard doubles the pedicle breach detection rate, reduces radiation exposure by 30 percent, and decreases by up to 10 percent the average time for pedicle screw placement.

SpineGuard’s mission is to make spine surgery safer. The company has offices in San Francisco and Paris. For further information, visit www.spineguard.com.

1 Source: I-Data Research.