ASI completes $5.3 million Series A Preferred Stock financing

Ablative Solutions, Inc. (ASI), a privately-held company headquartered in Kalamazoo, MI with offices in Menlo Park, CA announced today that it has completed a Series A Preferred Stock financing, totaling approximately $5.3 million  (including the conversion of the bridge financing completed earlier this year), to fund its unique technology platform.  The round was led by BioStar Ventures and the Michigan Accelerator Fund, and included participation by multiple angel investors.  Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP served as legal advisor to ASI for the transaction.

ASI is developing a significantly different approach to Renal Denervation, a new therapy that addresses hypertension and other diseases related to overactive sympathetic nerve activity.  The sympathetic nerves that run along the renal artery play an essential role in controlling blood pressure but, when overactive, contribute to hypertension.  Renal Denervation has been demonstrated to reduce blood pressure in patients who are not effectively treated by medical therapy.  De-activating these nerves modulates the signaling process, and helps to reduce blood pressure.  Unlike other approaches to Renal Denervation, which deliver destructive energy through the entire renal artery wall, ASI has developed a unique device that targets treatment directly to the nerves that encircle the renal artery, without damaging the artery wall – a solution that ASI calls PeriVascular Renal Denervation (PVRD™).

"Hypertension has an extraordinary impact on health, but it is a disease that is underappreciated.  There is good reason for the excitement surrounding Renal Denervation – it produces a persistent, durable reduction in blood pressure with a minimally invasive procedure," observed Dr. Tim Fischell, CEO and CMO of ASI.  "ASI seeks not only to simplify and streamline the denervation procedure, but, more importantly, to do so without damaging the vessel wall, by delivering the therapy directly to where the sympathetic nerves reside, just outside the blood vessel."

"We believe that ASI's simple, elegant approach will address the clinical need effectively," stated Dr. Vartan Ghazarossian, President and COO of ASI.   "Our technology development is driven by the awareness that less is more – providing optimized ablation of the sympathetic nerve less invasively and with less equipment and a shorter procedure time."  The Company projects that its clinical evaluations will begin in 2013.   

ASI was founded by two proven medical device entrepreneurs, Tim Fischell, MD and David Fischell, PhD.   With executive experience in both biopharmaceutical and medical device companies, Vartan Ghazarossian, PhD, is uniquely positioned to lead the development of ASI's novel device-chemistry-based therapy.  Dr. Steven Almany of BioStar Ventures, a member of ASI's Board of Directors, commented: "The therapeutic potential of perivascular renal denervation is very attractive, and we are very pleased to invest in ASI's team as they develop their unique approach."