BioScience Managers $5M Cornerstone Investment in Saluda Medical

  • Potential breakthrough treatment for chronic pain
  • Part of $10m capital raising
  • BioScience Managers achieved a 24.7% IRR in its previous fund – top decile performance of international private equity and venture capital fund managers.

20 February 2015, Melbourne, Australia: Leading healthcare fund manager BioScience Managers has invested $5 million in novel chronic pain treatment company Saluda Medical Pty Ltd.

The investment is part of a recently completed $10 million Series B capital raising by Saluda Medical as it moves toward commercialisation of a potential breakthrough treatment for chronic pain sufferers. The capital raising was well supported by existing company shareholders.

Saluda Medical plans to develop and market its Evoke™ spinal cord stimulation system that can be used to manage chronic pain of the back and limbs. This neuromodulation technology will improve the treatment of chronic pain, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy and other debilitating disorders.

Neurostimulation is a fast growing market segment within the medical devices sector, though such treatments for the dorsal column have been readily available for many years.

Saluda is unique as its neuromodulation technology, Evoke™, can stimulate the dorsal column while also receiving signals back from the nerves to allow the device to adjust the stimulation. This could be a much improved treatment of chronic pain with reduced side effects. To date Saluda is the only company to achieve this.

The company is close to completing a 30-day trial in patients for the treatment of chronic leg and back pain with a chronic trial scheduled to begin within the next 12 months. The market for chronic pain is extraordinary with approximately 1.5 billion sufferers worldwide.

“We view Saluda Medical as having a breakthrough technology that is close to commercialisation, addressing very large markets,” said BioScience Managers managing director Jeremy Curnock Cook.

“This coupled with excellent progress from the technology to date, made for a compelling investment case. We are very excited about our participation in bringing this technoloogy to the commercial market.

Saluda Medical is a successful spin-out from Australia’s Information Communications and Technology Research Centre of Excellence (NICTA) which provided four years funding to the company. Saluda has also worked in close collaboration with the Pain Management Research Institute at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney and received a grant from the government of New South Wales Medical Device Fund.

For more information about Saluda visit www.saludamedical.com.

 

CONTACTS

BioScience Managers Pty Ltd

Matt McNamara

Chief Investment Officer

BioScience Managers

+61 3 9618 8216

+61 438 628 862

mm@biosciencemanagers.com

Rudi Michelson

Principal

Monsoon Communications

+61 3 9620 3333

rudim@monsoon.com.au