TIDMIVO
Touchstone Innovations PLC
06 April 2017
RNS Reach
6 April 2017
Touchstone Innovations plc
Innovations provides GBP1.5m in seed funding for new Imperial
College spin-out Cardian
Touchstone Innovations plc (AIM: IVO, 'the Group',
'Innovations') has provided GBP1.5 million seed investment round in
Cardian Limited ('Cardian' or the 'Company') a new spin-out company
from Imperial College London.
Cardian has been formed to commercialise a novel implantable
device that improves the monitoring and treatment of cardiac
failure patients, by providing completely automated, continuous
wireless monitoring of blood pressure in the pulmonary artery.
Following this investment, Innovations will hold a 53.7%
interest in the Company, comprising a combination of founders
equity and 27.3% derived from investment.
Heart failure is a common and devastating chronic condition,
that affects more than 500,000 people living in the UK (source:
British Heart Foundation). Standard care is based on the
fine-tuning of dosing of therapy according to patients'
self-reported symptoms. This is extremely inaccurate and in many
cases, leads to symptoms worsening, re-hospitalisation, impairment
and ultimately death (50% mortality at five years after
diagnosis).
Cardian has developed a fully implantable wireless pulmonary
arterial pressure (PAP) sensor which needs neither batteries nor a
power line. The sensor is read by an external body-worn portable
reader the size of a smartphone, in real time, 24/7. This allows
the continuous monitoring of the pulmonary arterial pressure during
daily activity, including during periods of exertion and stress
(rather than lying in a hospital bed). This is significant because
around half of all heart failure sufferers show no sign of PAP
abnormalities at rest, and can therefore only be monitored with a
truly continuous monitoring system. Cardian's products should
therefore allow doctors to spot signals that existing technologies
miss, further improving management of the condition, reducing
hospitalisations and mortality rate.
The Company's newly appointed Chief Executive Officer, Sandeep
Yadav was previously COO of Cardiomems, one of the pioneers of the
monitoring of pulmonary arterial pressure. Cardiomems was acquired
by St Jude Medical for a total $450.0 million in 2014.
The underlying technology was developed by the Company's
co-founders Dr Christopher McLeod, Dr Mohammad Reza Bahmanyar, and
Dr Longfang Zou of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering and the
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial
College. Dr McLeod, who has been appointed as a non-executive
director of Cardian, has over 40 years' experience applying the
most recent technology to non-invasive, minimally invasive and
invasive patient monitoring.
Dani Bach, Director of Healthcare Ventures, Touchstone
Innovations, commented:
"This is a classic Imperial spin-out. The formation of Cardian
capitalises on more than a decade of research from Chris McLeod's
lab within the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
at Imperial College.
"Our Technology Transfer Office, Imperial Innovations, has been
supporting the founders for many years, working with the team on IP
protection and market evaluation, and helping to secure initial
funding, which enabled them to develop prototypes in an academic
setting.
"We are assembling a strong management team to commercialise
this compelling technology, which combined with the expertise of
the founding academics, gives us a great opportunity to help to
create a new company that could significantly impact the lives of
millions of sufferers of cardiac failure."
For further information contact:
020 3053
Touchstone Innovations plc 8834
Russ Cummings, Chief Executive
Officer
Jon Davies, Director of Communications
020 7457
Instinctif Partners 2020
Adrian Duffield/Melanie Toyne-Sewell/Chantal
Woolcock
J.P. Morgan Cazenove (Nominated 020 7742
Adviser) 4000
Michael Wentworth-Stanley/Alec
Pratt
020 7653
RBC Capital Markets 4000
Darrell Uden/Marcus Jackson/Laura
White
About Touchstone Innovations - www.touchstoneinnovations.com
Touchstone Innovations plc (formerly Imperial Innovations Group
plc or just "Innovations") creates, builds and invests in
pioneering technology companies and licensing opportunities
developed from outstanding scientific research from the 'Golden
Triangle', the geographical region broadly bounded by London,
Cambridge and Oxford.
This area has an unrivalled cluster of outstanding academic
research and technology businesses, and is home to four of the
world's top 10 universities, as well as leading research
institutions, the cream of the UK's science and technology
businesses and many of its leading investors.
Innovations supports scientists and entrepreneurs in the
commercialisation of their ideas through protecting and licensing
out intellectual property (through its Technology Transfer
subsidiary, Imperial Innovations), by leading the formation of new
companies, by recruiting high calibre management teams and by
providing investment and encouraging co-investment. Innovations
remains an active investor over the life of its portfolio
companies, with the majority of Innovations' investment going into
businesses in which it is already a shareholder.
Since becoming a public company in 2006, Innovations has raised
more than GBP440 million of equity from investors, which has
enabled it to invest in some of the most exciting spin-outs to come
out of UK academic research. In addition, the Group has agreed
GBP80.0 million in loan facilities from the European Investment
Bank (EIB).
Between Innovations' admission to AIM (August 2006) and 31
January 2017, Innovations has invested a total of GBP335.7 million
across its portfolio companies, which have collectively raised
investment of GBP1.5 billion.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
NRAOKPDKABKDDQK
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 06, 2017 02:01 ET (06:01 GMT)
Touchstone Innovations (LSE:IVO)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
Touchstone Innovations (LSE:IVO)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024