Dive Brief:
- Israeli medical device company Insightec raised up to $150 million in Series F funding at a post-money valuation of $1.3 billion, the company announced Friday, which will support continued evaluation of focused ultrasound as treatment for ailments such as essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease.
- In its statement, Insightec disclosed Koch Disruptive Technologies led the round and committed to invest $100 million at an initial closing to follow shareholder approval. It's KDT's second direct investment in the company, after it led a $150 million funding round in Insightec in 2017.
- Insightec's incisionless neurosurgery platform, Exablate Neuro, is the first MR-guided focused ultrasound device approved by the FDA to treat certain movement disorders in patients suffering from essential tremor and tremor-dominant Parkinson's disease who have not responded to medications.
Dive Insight:
Essential tremor, a neurological disorder, impacts more than 41 million people worldwide, and more than 10 million people globally live with Parkinson's disease.
Aiming to meet growing demand for incisionless surgery to treat those ailments, Insightec has sold its technology to more than 65 medical centers around the world that are using it for essential tremor patients. The Israel-based company said the volume of these treatments has more than doubled in the past year.
Insightec's Exablate Neuro uses high-intensity focused ultrasound beams that pass through skin, muscle, fat and bone, generating heat to ablate the brain area responsible for coordinating and controlling muscle activity to reduce the tremor. A 2019 study, partly funded by Insightec, showed that 58% of patients with essential tremor demonstrated at least a 50% improvement in their hand tremors and function at the three-year point.
According to Insightec, positive reimbursement decisions in the U.S. and a number of other countries is aiding adoption of its technology.
