TVA Medical raises $15 million

Austin startup helps people suffering from kidney failure.

Austin biomedical startup TVA Medical has raised $15 million to continue clinical studies of its treatment for end-stage renal disease, the company said Tuesday.

The company is developing minimally invasive therapies for chronic kidney disease patients that uses a catheter-based system. That allows doctors to connect an artery and vein to deliver hemodialysis to patients suffering from kidney failure.

The lead investor in the deal were Baxter Ventures and Boston Scientific, with participation from previous backers including Sante Ventures, S3 Ventures, TriStar Technology Ventures. TVA has raised $30 million to date and has 19 employees, the company said Tuesday.

TVA was founded in 2008 by William Cohn, a cardiovascular surgeon and the director of the Center for Technology and Innovation at the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston.

The company said that in addition to clinical studies, the new funding will be used accelerate market development for its system, called everlinQ endoAVF.

TVA said everlinQ has been studied outside the U.S. and has received CE marking, which is a mandatory marking for certain products sold within the European Economic Area.

The technology is not currently available in the United States and has not been approved for commercial use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“We are committed to providing kidney failure patients and caregivers with a mini-

mally invasive ... option,” Adam Berman, CEO of TVA said in a statement. “This financing strengthens our ability to bring

the innovative everlinQ endoAVF System to the

global market.” The final stage of chronic kidney disease is end-stage renal disease. Patients with kidney failure need dialysis, where blood is cleaned by a machine, or a new kidney through a transplant.

More than 2 million patients worldwide with end-stage renal disease receive hemodialysis therapy and require vascu

lar access to connect to a dialysis machine.

Kidney disease is the ninth-leading cause of death in the United States. More than 20 million U.S. adults have chronic kidney disease and most of them are not aware of their condition.