Vesiflo, a medical device startup based in Redmond, Wash., has raised $2.4 million out of a planned $3 million funding round to get its first product onto the market, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
The device, called inFlow, is tailored to a very specific issue: patients with neurological damage who have lost the ability to contract muscles around their bladder. There are up to 260,000 patients in the U.S. with this issue.
“When it can’t contract, they can’t pee, basically,” said Vesiflo’s Chief Business Officer Susan Robinson. She explained that most people with the condition — which can be a result of everything from diabetes to spinal cord injuries — must self-catheterize themselves or live with a permanent catheter.
“Some become house-bound,” she said. “But [inFlow] allows them to live their lives with more freedom.”
The device sits in the urethra and controls flow in and out of a patient’s bladder. Patients use a remote to control the device with magnetic pulses, allowing them to urinate on-the-go without needing to self-catheterize.
The device was approved by the FDA a few years ago, and the startup has been putting its resources into manufacturing and taking orders since then.
Robinson said the FDA approval was based on two things: first, patients using inFlow experienced less infection than those using catheters; second, they had a higher quality of life. She also said several physicians have already begun prescribing the device, and that the company has 600 more who are waiting for devices to give to patients.
Vesiflo previously raised $2 million to get the product off the ground after FDA approval. The company now employs six at its Redmond headquarters.
