WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Respiratory Motion, Inc. today announced that it has completed the first close of its Series B Preferred financing round. The Company has raised $5.8 million in the first closing and expects to raise up to an additional $3 million of capital, bringing the round to $8.8 million.
The round is led by Easton Capital of New York, a leading life sciences-focused venture capital firm with strong participation from early investors. The funds raised will support sales and marketing of the Company’s innovative ExSpiron respiration monitoring system.
The current issue of Anesthesiology News features a landmark study in which the ExSpiron provided new post-operative patient data that for the first time can allow clinicians to predict and potentially prevent life-threatening respiratory depression (see release issued today). The study comes on the back of a recent practice guideline by the American Society of Anesthesiologists on the post-operative management of patients with obstructive sleep apnea, a patient population particularly problematic for respiratory management. Pulmonary complications result in over $12 billion in healthcare costs in the US alone, the last year for which such data is available. The company’s flagship product line, ExSpiron, is a new class of solution developed to address these health and cost issues. The ExSpiron is expected to substantially improve patient flow in the post-operative suites.
John Friedman, Managing Director of Easton Capital, comments: “We are very pleased with the significant progress made by Respiratory Motion in tackling the clinical and economic problems associated with respiratory depression and with the clinical results achieved by physicians working with the ExSpiron respiration monitor during the past year. Our due diligence confirmed that the Company’s technology advances patient care and is well suited for the new healthcare paradigm of cost containment and value-based payments and is timely in addressing a growing gap in the anesthesia market.” Friedman joins the Company’s Board of Directors.
Concurrent with the funding round, the Company also announced today the appointment of John Geisel as Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Geisel was part of the launch sales team at Nellcor that successfully commercialized pulse oximetry and served as President of U.S. Operations with Datex, a leading maker of anesthesia and medical monitoring technology for hospitals acquired by GE Healthcare.
Jenny Freeman, CEO of Respiratory Motion, concludes: "Respiratory depression continues to be a threat to patient safety and a leading source of added costs across the continuum of care in the hospital. Signs of respiratory risk often originate in the recovery room, ripple onto the general ward and can continue post-discharge with the resulting significant cost burden for hospitals apparent at all levels – from the Board of Trustees to CFOs and all the way down the line. Higher incidence of obesity, sleep apnea, and use of opioids exacerbate the problem, while the current standard of care has proven insufficient. The best way to attack this is at the perioperative source.”
About Respiratory Motion
Respiratory Motion, Inc. is a privately held medical device company based in Waltham, Massachusetts focused on the development and commercialization of innovative devices to monitor respiration. Its solutions leverage advances in digital processing and algorithmic programming. Its mission is to create respiratory technologies and products that help clinicians and hospitals improve patient safety and outcomes.
