GSK Venture Fund Selects Neurostim Device Maker SetPoint Medical As First Investment

Article preview from Medtech Insight - September 2013

A $50 million venture fund set up by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline has chosen vagus nerve stimulation device start-up SetPoint Medical, a company currently focused on treatments for autoimmune diseases, as its first investment. The move highlights the growing importance of device-mediated therapies for a wide range of common, chronic conditions.

GSK Venture Fund Selects Neurostim Device Maker SetPoint Medical As First Investment

Article preview from Medtech Insight - September 2013

In a concerted effort to capitalize on the red-hot global opportunity for neuromodulation therapy, used to treat patients with chronic pain and other debilitating conditions, Action Potential Venture Capital (APVC) Ltd., a new $50 million strategic venture capital fund from pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK), has chosen as its first investment neuromodulation device company SetPoint Medical Corp. of Valencia, CA, which will receive $5 million from the APVC fund.

The investment is unique in that it brings a major pharmaceutical market player into the neuromodulation device field, and it illustrates the growing importance of device-mediated therapies for a wide range of common, chronic conditions. However, GSK is not the first drug company to recognize the potential of the neurostim device space. Merck & Co. Inc.’s Global Health Innovation Fund recently participated in a $40 million Series A funding round for electroCore LLC, a New Jersey-based start-up developing a noninvasive, patient-administered vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) device for the treatment of cluster headaches and migraines as well as other chronic conditions. Merck, which invested $12.5 million in electroCore, has a large presence in the migraine medication market with its migraine drug Maxalt (rizatriptan), but the company also is well aware of the fact that up to 40% of migraine sufferers do not obtain adequate relief from drug therapy. Like APVC, Merck’s Global Health Innovation Fund is specifically focused on “technology-enabled care,” the fund’s managing director, Bill Taranto, told “The Gray Sheet” recently.

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