Small Medical Companies Raising Big Funds
November 6, 2015
By Andrew Hoglund

Several companies in the medical field raised a fair amount of money this past week. Qvella raised $20 million to help develop and produce its pathogen analyzer that can identify infections in only 30 minutes. Conventus raised $21 million to help support its minimally invasive implants for fractures. Finally, CureVac has raised $110 million in an effort to create a therapeutic cancer vaccine. These funds should help provide a significant boost for each of these three companies.

Qvella is close to creating a very powerful, very useful compact, inexpensive pathogen analyzer that identifies the infection in only 30 minutes. The idea is to enable better infection treatment faster as well as to minimize the overuse of antibiotics, which leads to the development of resistance. The company has received a $20 million Series A round that was co-led by RA Capital Management and Whitecap Venture Partners. The financing will be used to advance the development of its first test to detect pathogens in whole blood, as well as to build out its staff.

Conventus Orthopaedics has raised $21 million in equity to support its implants for fractures of the distal radius and shoulder. This latest funding round brings the company’s equity haul to around $46 million. Conventus’ DRS Implant for wrist fractures offers a less invasive surgery. Implantation requires a two- to three-centimeter incision, as compared to the standard 8 to 10 centimeters, and does not disrupt blood flow to the site of the fracture. Conventus says the device is able to achieve this feat because it is placed inside the bone. It was cleared by the FDA in 2013.

CureVac, a German mRNA biotech, received funding from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as German billionaire Dietmar Hopp, in a venture syndicate that is giving $110 million to CureVac, which has now garnered roughly $330 million in support. The funding comes as CureVac pursues a Phase IIb study for its lead therapeutic cancer vaccine program and sets its sights on adding a new industrial-scale manufacturing facility that can provide the product needed to get its therapies through the clinic. CureVac has several different tech platforms in play, ranging from stimulating the immune system to an mRNA approach designed to coax cells to produce their own protein therapeutics.

These three small companies combined received over $150 million this past week. While it may seem small when compared to deals like Sanofi’s agreement with Hanmi Pharmaceuticals for $4.2 billion, it is important to remember that all of those big companies had to start somewhere. And even if these small companies don’t become the next Medtronic or Johnson & Johnson, they can still provide products that could completely flip the medical field on its head.