Swiss biotech business Symetis raises €15m in venture funding

The firms were joined by new investor Banexi Venture Partners and existing backers Truffle Capital, Novartis Venture Fund, Aravis Venture, and BiomedInvest.

Symetis has developed Acurate, a percutaneous valve replacement programme, which has completed preclinical tests and will go through the first-in-man clinical study later this year. The company will also begin in-vivo testing and validation of its Acurate TF, a trans-femoral version of the Acurate system.

Jacques Essinger, CEO of Symetis, said, “This financing gives us the means to compete in this fast-moving field and to bring the Acurate technology up to market approval.”

The company expects trans-catheter aortic valve replacement therapy (TAVR) to grow from $100m in 2008 to over $1bn by 2015. This growth will likely be driven primarily by inoperable high risk patients who are best served by percutaneous procedures, the firm said.

“TAVR will be to stenotic valve therapy what the stent was to the coronary obstruction therapy. With its unique self-positioning technology, Symetis’ Acurate will prove to become a major player in this estimated $1.2bn market,” Vinci Capital’s managing partner, Christian Waldvogel, said.

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