Back Pain Company Raises $30 Million (written by Biloine Young @ OTW)
Spinal Modulation, Inc., a developer of an implantable spinal cord stimulator system has just completed a $30 million Series D financing to fund U.S. and international clinical trials. Spinal Modulation’s product is, essentially, a pacemaker that delivers programmable amounts of electricity to a patient’s spinal cord and, in the process, relieves back pain. The device uses wires connected to an electrode which is implanted into the back or belly of the patient. The electrodes are positioned on the spinal cord, according to company spokesman Dimas Jimenez. Jimenez estimates the world-wide market for pain-modulating devices of this sort could eventually rise to somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.5 billion dollars. Nice neighborhood.The system is presently in clinical trials in Europe and Australia. If all goes as planned, Spinal Modulation’s management hopes to receive permission to sell in Europe this year and to begin a clinical trial in the United States in 2012.
Investors in Spinal Modulation include Medtronic, Inc. DeNovo Ventures, ePlanet /DFJ, InCube Ventures, Johnson & Johnson Development Corpor...
