A young, fast-growing medical device company in Durham has raised $55 million in venture-capital financing, one of the largest funding hauls by a Triangle business this year.
TransEnterix will use the money to manufacture and market a device that promises scar-free abdominal surgery to repair hernias or remove gall bladders, ovaries and appendixes.
The flexible instrument, called the SPIDER System, recently won approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. A tube with clipping extensions is inserted through an incision in the navel and spreads out inside the abdomen.
TransEnterix CEO Todd M. Pope expects to start selling it to hospitals by next spring, after physician training. The price hasn't been set.
In the United States this year, doctors will perform 2.5 million laparoscopic procedures, and there's hunger for a better method, Pope said.
"There's a lot of momentum around minimally invasive surgery," he said. "We're always trying to have less pain and trauma for the patient going into surgery. It's been well-received by physicians and the investment community."
The tool won the "Innovation of the Year" award from the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons last month.
TransEnterix will use the venture money to begin manufacturing the device and build a sales team, Pope said. The company is committed to making the device in this region, and Pope's top priority, now that he has secured the additional funding, will be to find a manufacturing site.
"We're excited about being a growing medical-device company in this region," said Pope, who grew up in Raleigh and attended UNC-Chapel Hill. He joined TransEnterix last fall after serving as president of Johnson & Johnson's Cordis medical-device division.
TransEnterix employs 31 people; Pope expects to have 80 employees by the end of next year.
The company was founded in 2006 by Synecor, a business incubator in Durham. The SPIDER System was the brainchild of Dr. Richard Stack, a Duke University professor emeritus of cardiology.
The latest round of financing was led by Aisling Capital of New York and included new investors Quaker BioVentures of Philadelphia and Durham-based Intersouth Partners. Garheng Kong, a general partner with Intersouth, will join TransEnterix's board of directors.
TransEnterix's experienced management team and promising technology make it a smart investment, Kong said.
