US investors throw cash at medtech while Australia’s government releases a new consultation report.
Euclid, a US medical technology company, will “finally stop heart disease in its tracks” according to investors who recently backed the company with USD$80 million.
John Fichthorn, founder of MedTex Venture and Euclid investor, made the claim saying that Euclid’s clinical approach was “highly differentiated from competitive methods”.
Investors are backing Euclid’s use of AI to diagnose cardiovascular disease through computed tomography angiography. The company’s software takes CT angiography scan data and uses AI algorithms to build 3D models of the build-ups of plaque within the blood vessels.
The company claims the models will give doctors a more detailed view into the key drivers of strokes and heart attacks.
Whether this actually “stops heart disease in its tracks” or just provides a better test for people who are already sick, remains to be seen.
Investors, however, are backing Euclid who received FDA approval for its PlaqueIQ solution. Euclid also have the green light from European regulators for the software which uses a CT scan to analyse the flow of oxygenated blood through the branches of the coronary arteries.
The series C raise shows an acceleration of investor confidence in Euclid, and follows a series B raise in June 2022 which earned the Boston-based scale up a USD$27 million. The latest windfall has brought their total investment to USD$121 million since they were founded a decade ago.
Elevage Medical Technologies was the biggest investor in Euclid’s series C raise. They are a medtech-focused fund launched in May with a USD$300 million investment from Patient Square Capital.
The US medtech industry is growing and expanding into international markets with the backing of funders like Elevage.
Meanwhile, Australia is still working out how to get medical technology to market more quickly. The DoHAC has just released its report Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Review – Consultation 1.
The report said that industry submissions reinforced that “the rigour and desire for a robust process” to ensure safety of medical solutions could also be “impeding timely access to care” by creating onerous barriers between innovation and commercialisation.
Medical Technology Association of Australia chief executive Ian Burgess told Tech & Medicine that bureaucratic processes often stymie medtech getting to Australian consumers.
“We’ve got a vibrant, thriving, local R&D and innovation sector but there can be a valley of death along the way where we lose those technologies. They just fall by the wayside, or we lose them overseas,” Mr Burgess said.
