Mardil Medical said it raised $6.125 million in a deal led by the Agensi Inovasi Malaysia, the national innovation agency of the Malaysian government. The Minnesota company said the agency viewed the transaction as a “strategic investment anticipated to help expand Malaysia’s technology footprint.”

PRESS RELEASE

Mardil Medical taps international investors to secure latest round of funding

With life science companies facing record low venture-capital investments domestically, industry group LifeScience Alley brings investors from abroad

Minneapolis – Jan. 30, 2013 – Despite limited venture-capital funding among pre-revenue medical technology companies across America, Minnesota-based Mardil Medical today announced it has secured $6.125 million in financing through an emerging global-resources network designed to foster medical innovation and commercialization. Formed by LifeScience Alley, a leading trade organization based in Minneapolis, the network may be a solution for life science firms seeking much-needed cash for clinical expansion initiatives.

“Mardil Medical is representative of many U.S. life science companies. We have developed and successfully tested a promising new cardiovascular device technology that is expected to enhance patients’ quality of life and help reduce cost, but conventional U.S.-based financing continues to be an obstacle in the current environment,” said Jim Buck, CEO of Mardil Medical. “With help from LifeScience Alley and Tractus Asia Ltd. – an Asian business and management advisory firm and member of the global network – we attracted high quality investors from across the globe, securing critical financing for further platform development and clinical trials.”

Mardil’s leading product is the VenTouchTM system, a minimally invasive implantable device designed to treat moderate and severe Functional Mitral Valve Regurgitation (FMR), a condition affecting over 600,000 people in the United States alone and often leads to accelerated heart failure. Unlike the current FMR standard-of-care, Mardil’s implantation of the VenTouch System does not require surgeons to open a patient’s chest or heart or enter the blood vessels, nor does it require stopping the heart during the implantation procedure.

The funding will allow Mardil to complete final development of the VenTouchTM system, and conduct clinical trials in Europe, Asia and Canada. The company plans to seek regulatory approval in these countries first, followed by market clearance in the United States.

Mardil Medical was the first company to leverage LifeScience Alley’s growing innovation network, which facilitates access to qualified people, technology and capital. Tractus Asia Ltd. directed Mardil to Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM) – the National Innovation Agency of the Malaysian Government – “who was a particularly good partner fit, given Mardil’s growth-oriented product platform and clinical development stage,” Buck said.  AIM led the funding round with a strategic investment anticipated to help expand Malaysia’s technology footprint.

“Mardil’s success in securing funding abroad gives credence to the value of international collaboration and identifying partners like Tractus,” said Dale Wahlstrom, CEO of LifeScience Alley. “But most importantly, Mardil’s example provides a precedent for other innovative life science firms to follow for securing funding for products that help improve people’s lives.”

Buck noted that while the United States has dominated medical technology innovation for decades, “the irony is that strategic financing from Asia and elsewhere may be what it takes to secure American leadership for many pre-revenue stage life science companies.”

About Mardil Medical 
Mardil Medical, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn., is a venture-backed medical device company developing therapies for structural heart diseases including abnormalities in the shape of the heart muscle or valves. Mardil Medical’s first product, the VenTouch™ Targeted Ventricular Reshaping System, addresses the root cause of Functional Mitral Regurgitation – enlargement of one of the heart’s pumping chambers.  The VenTouch System is a conforming jacket that surrounds the heart’s pumping chambers and normalizes their shape with an innovative anatomy correcting adjustability feature. VenTouch™ implantation is designed to minimize patient risk by eliminating the need for open-chest or open-heart surgery, vascular access, stopping of the heart or use of cardio-pulmonary bypass and does not require device or component implantation within the patient’s heart or vessels. Visit www.mardil.com for more information.

About LifeScience Alley
LifeScience Alley is an international leader in sharing best practices, and is the largest state-based life sciences trade association in the United States. With a 28-year track record of providing valuable services and results-oriented outcomes to its members, LifeScience Alley improves the life science operating environment and enables business success through educating workforces, influencing state and federal public policy, supporting advancement in research and technological innovation and fostering industry connections. The Association’s membership and supporting community employs approximately 250,000 Minnesotans and its reach extends throughout the Midwest and Canada. Together with its subsidiary, The BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota, LifeScience Alley works to strengthen the regional economy by assisting in the growth of established and emerging industries, and attracting new companies, talent and capital. Read more at www.LifeScienceAlley.org.

About Agensi Inovasi Malaysia
Initiated by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and established through an Act of Parliament in 2010, AIM is chartered to help achieve the establishment of the Knowledge-economy (K-economy), an ambitious goal for the Malaysian economy to pivot toward knowledge industries within the decade. AIM invests in early and growth stage companies to promote the commercialization of products and services in sectors such as medical technology, renewable energy and other advanced sectors. For more information, seewww.innovation.my.