Xeltis, a Swiss-Dutch medical device company, announced that it has secured €15M quasi-equity financing from the European Investment Bank (EIB).
The financing is being made available under the European Guarantee Fund (EGF), a part of the €540B EU rescue package in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In terms of medical technology innovations, what Xeltis is doing almost sounds like science fiction, yet it is already here,” says EIB Vice-President Kris Peeters.
“I think Europe can be proud that it is a breeding ground for such cutting-edge technology, which has the potential to significantly impact medical care in a number of fields. I am proud that, with help of the European Guarantee Fund, we can get behind Xeltis to help them accelerate their way out of this difficult global phase,” he added.
The fund will enable Xeltis to accelerate the clinical programmes of three restorative devices that can impact cardiovascular medicine.
Eliane Schutte, CEO of Xeltis, says “EIB financial support can make the difference in the time our restorative heart valves and blood vessels reach patients that today have limited or no options at all for their conditions. Xeltis has the most advanced restorative technology platform in cardiovascular medicine and may positively impact millions of lives.”
Xeltis: What you need to know
Xeltis was formed through the merger of two Dutch/Swiss university spin-offs in 2006. The company has developed a polymer-based restorative device for cardiovascular treatment.
“The devices are made of supramolecular polymers shaped — through a process called electrospinning — into a microstructure that allows tissue restoration,” says the company.
The restorative devices comprise heart valves and small diameter blood vessels for coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery and for hemodialysis vascular access.
The company’s restorative heart valves enable the patient’s own body to naturally form a new heart valve through a therapeutic approach called Endogenous Tissue Restoration (ETR).
With ETR, the patient’s natural healing system develops tissue that pervades Xeltis’ heart valve, forming a new, natural, and fully functional valve within it.
As ETR occurs, Xeltis implants are gradually absorbed by the body.
Currently, the company has initiated the development of three types of cardiovascular implants: pulmonary heart valves, coronary artery bypass graft, and hemodialysis access grafts.
