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Xeltis, a clinical stage medtech company developing living implants that enable the body to restore cardiovascular function, has raised €32 million in a Series D2 equity fundraise. The fundraising has been backed by a syndicate of current and new investors, including Grand Pharma, DaVita Venture Group, EQT Life Sciences, Invest-NL, and other international investors. This fundraising round will enable Xeltis to progress its key clinical programs into pivotal trials, as it aims to give patients around the world access to the world’s most advanced restorative cardiovascular devices.

In 2017, Xeltis was one of the winners of Innovation Origins’ Gerard & Anton Awards.

Xeltis’ breakthrough technology is focused on restoring the body’s natural cardiovascular functions, with numerous potential applications. The Company’s proprietary endogenous tissue restoration (ETR) platform utilizes an advanced polymer-based material that triggers the body’s natural healing response to regenerate the patient’s own tissue around it, forming new, living, and long-lasting vessels and valves.
Xeltis’ most advanced program, aXess, is a vascular access graft for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) requiring hemodialysis. Preliminary in-human clinical trial data from the Company’s ongoing aXess studies have been very encouraging. The Company is also pursuing clinical programs in pulmonary valve replacement and coronary artery bypass grafts.

China

Alongside the equity fundraise, Xeltis and Grand Pharma have completed a license deal, covering Greater China, for aXess and other potential hemodialysis products developed under the same technology platform. Under the agreement, Grand Pharma will have exclusive rights to develop, produce and commercialize these products in Greater China.

“The strategic support of Grand Pharma and DaVita alongside our existing investor base represents a strong validation of our technology and potential to transform the landscape of cardiovascular surgery. We remain focused on progressing our aXess clinical trials, as well as exploring our next steps in other indications,” commented Eliane Schutte, CEO of Xeltis. “Securing this financing is an important milestone for Xeltis. We are proud to have attracted such high-profile investors to our company and look forward to leveraging their respective insights – from clinical expertise to the product development lifecycle – as we continue on the next phase of growth.”

Frank Zhou, Grand Pharmaceutical Group CEO, added: “Xeltis is leading the way in addressing the current limitations of access grafts for hemodialysis patients, using a ground-breaking approach based on its world-leading ETR platform. We believe the company’s technology has enormous potential to benefit patients and hospital care systems globally.”

Invest-NL

For Invest-NL, the investment in Xeltis fits well with its strategic focus to keep healthcare in the Netherlands accessible and affordable. “Xeltis’ innovative products help improve both the quality of treatment and the quality of life for patients,” said CEO Rinke Zonneveld. “By preventing common complications, significant savings in healthcare costs in the Netherlands are also expected.”

To determine the social benefits of the investment in Xeltis, Invest-NL examined how many healthcare costs the innovation might prevent on the Dutch market and to whom those savings accrue: patient, healthcare provider, or healthcare insurer. It also calculated how many healthy life years the innovation would provide. “By looking at our investments in healthcare from an impact perspective, we take the fundability of healthcare innovations to the next level,” said Zonneveld.