IntraPace, Inc. Completes Oversubscribed Series C Financing
Company Developing Electrical Pacing Technology to Address the Epidemic of
Obesity
MENLO PARK, Calif., July 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IntraPace, Inc., a
medical device company developing an implantable gastric pacemaker for the
treatment of obesity, announced today that it completed a $14.6 million series
C financing. The financing round was jointly led by Toucan Capital Corp. and
Oxford Bioscience Partners. The company plans to use the funds to complete a
US safety trial on its gastric pacemaker.
"The fact that this funding round was heavily oversubscribed by both current
and new investors validates our progress in the development of minimally
invasive treatment for obesity, which has become a major health issue in this
country," said Mir Imran, founder and chairman of IntraPace. "We believe that
endoscopic delivery has a number of advantages over current therapies and we
look forward to upcoming clinical trials." In addition to the lead investors, other participants include Guidant
Corporation, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, CB Health Ventures, and
the Halo Fund as well as existing investor DFJ ePlanet. In conjunction with the
financing, Bruce Robertson of Toucan Capital and Jeff Barnes of Oxford
Bioscience Partners will join the board of directors.
"We are enthusiastic about IntraPace's prospects and look forward to working
with the IntraPace team headed by Mir Imran, one of the most successful medical
device entrepreneurs in the country," said Bruce Robertson, Managing Director,
of Toucan Capital. "With IntraPace, Mir and his outstanding team have
developed a novel technology, based on the principles of electrical pacing, to
address the epidemic of obesity. We think that IntraPace will follow in the
path of other groundbreaking inventions that Mir's teams have provided over
the past two decades, resulting in both clinical and financial success." Obesity is a disease that affects nearly one-third of the American adult
population, approximately 60 million people. In fact, more than 60 percent of
adult Americans, approximately 130 million, are categorized as being overweight
or obese. According to the 2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination
Survey (NHANES) conducted by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), each year,
obesity causes at least 300,000 deaths in the U.S. and annual medical costs for
American adults with obesity are more than $100 billion.
"IntraPace's approach to treating obesity with a unique, less-invasive solution
is consistent with Guidant's philosophy of delivering high value, leading-edge
therapies for major medical conditions," said Sami Hamade, who leads Compass,
Guidant Corporation's business development and VC group. "We look forward to
working with the IntraPace team and learning more about this new and exciting
therapy." Jeff Barnes, Managing Director of Oxford Bioscience Partners, added, "The
sophisticated electrophysiological approach being developed by IntraPace offers
obesity patients a far less traumatic therapeutic modality. Our research
indicates that the medical community and patients alike will embrace this
advanced technology as a far more viable solution than current treatments." About IntraPace, Inc.
Headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif., IntraPace, Inc is focused on improving the
lives of patients who are obese by facilitating weight reduction through
gastric pacing. A medical device company, IntraPace is developing an
endoscopically delivered gastric pacemaker for obesity treatment. Further
information may be obtained at http://www.intrapace.com/.
About Toucan Toucan Capital Fund II, L.P. is a $120 million venture capital fund (SBIC)
focused primarily on biotechnology and medical device investments, with a
secondary emphasis on nanotechnology. Toucan invests nationwide and
specializes in seed and early stage opportunities. Our investment
professionals have extensive backgrounds in science, engineering, marketing,
and finance at a variety of entrepreneurial and established companies. Toucan's
primary offices are located in Bethesda, MD, outside of Washington, DC.
About Oxford Bioscience Oxford Bioscience Partners (OBP) is a life science venture capital firm that
provides equity financing and management assistance to start-up and
early-stage, entrepreneurial-driven companies in the bioscience and healthcare
industries. The General Partners of OBP currently manage venture funds with
committed capital of more than $800 million. DATASOURCE: IntraPace, Inc.
CONTACT: Sharon Lake of IntraPace, +1-650-289-5100, or Web site: http://www.intrapace.com/
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