Iantrek raises $23 million in Series B financing for development of MIGS devices in US

Iantrek Inc. recently announced the closing of a $23M Series B financing. The oversubscribed financing was led by institutional investors Visionary Ventures and Sectoral Asset Management, Inc.

According to the company, the capital will be used to initiate clinical introduction and post-marketing studies of Iantrek’s micro-interventional glaucoma surgical (MIGS) devices in the United States.

Marc-Andre Marcotte, CFA, partner at Sectoral Asset Management, and Farrell Tyson, MD, general partner at Visionary Ventures, will join Iantrek's Board of Directors.

Glaucoma is the most common cause of irreversible blindness, affecting more than 75 million people globally. The company noted in its news release that the MIGS device market is the highest growth segment in eye surgery with an estimated total market of $500 million in annual sales and CAGR exceeding 20% per year.

The company noted in its news release that it is the only MIGS company with FDA-registered technologies designed to address both natural aqueous outflow pathways, trabecular and suprachoroidal. Earlier this year, the company unveiled its breakthrough CycloPen micro-interventional system targeting the suprachoroidal outflow pathway – an established therapeutic target where MIGS micro-stent interventions have demonstrated significant and sustained outflow enhancement with the majority of patients achieving IOP reduction of 20% or more.

The first cases in the United States using Iantrek’s suprachoroidal technology were performed earlier this month. The company will present long-term clinical outcomes at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in Chicago, starting Sept. 30.

In the news release, the company also announced that Sean Ianchulev, MD, MPH, the company’s founder and chairman, is now the company’s CEO and strengthened its ophthalmic technology leadership with the appointment of Jason Cha as the vice president of Sales and Marketing and Ginger Clasby as the head of Clinical Operations and Regulatory.

Cha was instrumental in the successful launch of the Hydrus® Microstent at Ivantis, Inc., and Clasby led the regulatory approval of the CyPass Microstent while at Transcend Medical Inc., prior to the acquisition of both companies by Alcon AG.

In addition, the company announced in the release it has gathered a strong roster of clinical and industry experts on its corporate and advisory boards which include Robert Weinreb, MD, James Mazzo, Jeffry Weinhuff, Andrew Corley, Iqbal “Ike” Ahmed, MD, Douglas Rhee, MD, Rick Lewis, MD, and Stephen Bloch, MD.

“There remains a significant unmet clinical need to provide safe and effective micro-interventional tools for aqueous outflow management,” Ianchulev, who is also professor of Ophthalmology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Director of Ophthalmic Innovation and Technology at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, said in the statement. “We are grateful to have a world-class syndicate of investors supporting our efforts to advance these new technologies. With two commercial ready MIGS platforms, Iantrek is uniquely positioned to transform the horizon of micro-interventional ophthalmic surgery.”