Dialybrid raises €15M to develop silk-based dialysis graft
What's the deal? Italian medical device company DialybridDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has raised a €15 million series A round led by XGEN VentureDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, with participation from CDP Venture CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The funding coincides with the first-in-human implant of its Silkothane Arteriovenous Graft, a vascular access device for hemodialysis patients.
What's the endgame? Dialybrid is developing a hybrid graft made from Silkothane, a patented material combining silk fibroin and polyurethane. The device is engineered to integrate into patients' vessels and provide durable, easy-to-cannulate vascular access for people with end-stage kidney disease.
Why now? The financing will fund clinical development of the graft and preclinical work on the material for other vascular applications. The company's first-in-human trial is enrolling in Italy, and the first patient was implanted by Prof. Matteo Tozzi at ASST Sette LaghiDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → in Varese.
Chief executive officer Francesco Giovanni Greco called the round and trial start "a transformative milestone for our company." Tozzi said that if it works as intended, the graft "may provide vascular surgeons a new tool with shorter cannulation time than native fistulas and longer durability than commercially available grafts."
The market: More than half a million vascular access procedures for hemodialysis are performed each year in the EU and US. Surgeons either implant a synthetic arteriovenous graft, which offers faster access but low durability and higher infection risk, or create a native arteriovenous fistula, which is more durable but needs longer to mature.
The signal: Dialybrid's round ranks among the larger series A deals raised by an Italian startup, sitting in roughly the 95th percentile of 320 such rounds tracked all-time. It reflects investor appetite for Italian life science companies targeting high unmet medical needs — a focus XGEN's Daniele Scarinci said drove its decision to back the company.
Read more: benzinga.com
Image credit: Dialybrid
