MicroCHIPS raises $16.5 million to fund for diabetes and osteoporosis programs

MicroCHIPS, Inc., a developer of intelligent implant systems, has raised $16.5 million to fund its lead programs in diabetes and osteoporosis. Current investors Polaris Venture Partners, Novartis Venture Fund, Flybridge Capital Partners, Medtronic, Saints Capital, Intersouth Partners, Care Capital and CSK Venture Capital were joined by new investor InterWest Partners.

"Support from our investors enables us to bring our vision to life," said John Santini, president and CEO of MicroCHIPS. "Our monitoring and therapy solutions will give patients the tools they need to self-manage their conditions and therapies, improve their lifestyles, and achieve better health."

MicroCHIPS intends to conduct initial clinical testing in 2010 to advance its diabetes program. The MicroCHIPS intelligent in-body system is a long-lived implant designed to sense real-time changes in glucose levels and deliver continuous data to a mobile device. As a result, diabetes can be effectively managed to reduce the acute dangers of low blood sugar and the negative effects of hyperglycemia.

MicroCHIPS' osteoporosis device, also in advanced development, is designed to automatically deliver precise doses of an anabolic bone building agent without requiring patients to remember to do self-injections, use patches, or take pills on a daily basis. Poor compliance with bone building therapies is a major shortcoming of existing therapies, and many people who suffer from debilitating fractures could benefit from a device ensuring complete adherence to an osteoporosis drug regimen.

"MicroCHIPS is developing personalized health management devices to transform the lives of people who suffer from challenging medical conditions," said Robert Langer, the David H. Koch, Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "The platform technologies developed by MicroCHIPS are creating a new generation of sophisticated medical systems that can sense critical biochemical changes and rapidly deliver therapy."

MicroCHIPS' technologies can also be applied to life-saving therapeutic applications in diabetes and cardiology, where patients require immediate drug therapies while remote from caregivers. These responsive implants are designed to enable rapid delivery of a life-saving therapeutic when triggered by the sensing of critical clinical conditions, such as severe hypoglycemia or myocardial infarction.