Rafael Medical scores $2.5 million

Caesarea-based Rafael Medical Technologies has scored $2.5 million financing and is about to complete clinical trials of SafeFlo, a filter designed to prevent pulmonary embolisms.

The product is a retrievable filter placed in the vena cava, the company explains. It is designed to catch blood clots that cause embolisms, a condition that has been estimated to cost the U.S. healthcare system over $1.5 billion a year, the startup adds.

Pulmonary embolisms are caused when a clot travels up the major inferior vein (the vena cava) through the heart and into the blood vessels of the lungs. Once lodged in the delicate lung vessel, the clot can cause breathing and blood circulation to break down, killing the patient. Not a few such embolisms originate from the major veins of the leg and pelvis: these can be caused by anything from surgery to sitting still for too long.

Before this financing, which was provided by Possis Medical, Rafael had raised $6 million. The current financing round priced the startup at $16.5 million, post-money.

Possis specializes in mechanical (as opposed to chemical) methods of beating these deadly blood clots.

Under its agreement with Rafael, the Israeli company may borrow $1.5 million more, and Possis has the right to buy Rafael outright within three years, or within 60 days as of FDA approved for its product.

So far, Rafael can boast the European CE mark of approval, which is the EU parallel to the FDA nod. Rafael CEO Aaron Feldman commented that Rafael has to complete its clinical trial and file with the FDA, a process that should take a year to a year and a half.

He adds that Possis' catheterization technology to snare blood clots complements Rafael's product.

Rafael was founded in 2000 by Feldman and Elchanan Bruckheimer.