Transcend Medical raises $51 Million in Round B of Funding for expanding the Surgical Glaucoma Study

Transcend Medical, Inc., has recently managed to raise $51 million in round B of funding. The company specializes in producing ophthalmic devices which serve to developing minimally invasive glaucoma therapies. This round of funding has been led by the previous investors from Canaan Partners, Finistere Ventures, HLM Venture Partners, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Latterell Venture Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, Split Rock Partners and Technology Partners. The only new partner who has joined the funding at the moment is Investor Growth Capital.

Abhijeet Lele, the Managing Director and Head of Healtfcare Investing at IGC declared the following: “Transcend’s promising clinical outcomes and R&D progress to date demonstrate that the company is well positioned in the existing $4.5 billion global glaucoma therapy market. look forward to working closely with the management team to expedite development of this exciting minimally invasive glaucoma therapy.”

The company intends to use the funds in order to develop an additional infrastructure and resources for its US pivotal study of the CyPass® Micro-Stent, but also in order to develop next generation glaucoma solutions and to for ongoing international clinical trials. One of their important studies relates to the CyPass Micro-Stent, which is a very small implant which can be placed in the eye of the patient by the means of a minimally invasive surgical procedure. The purpose of this implant is that of offering the patient the chance of having an early intervention which is far less invasive than the conventional surgical treatments. Moreover, the implant called CyPass Micro-Stent is very likely to reduce or to completely eliminate the need for glaucoma medications though it very well provides a continuous control of the intraocular pressure.

Brian Walsh, the president and Chief Executive Officer of Transcend Medical stated the following: “We are pleased with the strong support from our investors and it represents the industry-wide validation surrounding our CyPass Micro-Stent for treatment of early glaucoma. The additional capital ensures that we are well-positioned to complete our clinical and corporate objectives.”

Transcend Medical is a company based on the development of medical devices which are intended to help the treatment of glaucoma, which is the main cause which leads to the irreversible blindness of adults. Reports estimate that there are more than 4 million persons in US and over 60 million persons worldwide which are affected by this disease. Moreover, the figures are expected to grow up to almost 6 million in the US and more than 70 million all over the world by 2015. The company is based in Menlo Park, in California. This is the first company to spin-out from the ForSight Labs, LLC, which is an incubator concerned only with the ophthalmic innovations.