Nyra Medical Receives Financing for Development of Carlen TMVR Technology

November 23, 2022—Nyra Medical, Inc., a medical device company that is developing transcatheter mitral valve repair (TMVR) technology, announced the closing of a $20 million Series A financing. Proceeds from the financing will be used to support Nyra’s technology through early feasibility clinical studies.

According to Nyra, its Carlen transcatheter technology is designed to modify the native mitral valve leaflets, correcting deficiencies that lead to mitral regurgitation, while preserving the physiological valve geometry. The technology is intended to eliminate the risk of stenosis and preserve transcatheter and surgical treatments as future options. The Carlen device is an investigational technology and is not approved or cleared for use in patients in any geography, advised the company.

The financing round was led by Vensana Capital and a global medical device company. Additional investors Broadview Ventures, Epidarex Capital, and the Georgia Research Alliance Venture Fund.

Murali Padala, PhD, who is Director of the Carlyle Fraser Cardiothoracic Research Laboratories at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, is the inventor of Carlen and founder of Nyra Medical.

“We know today that proper correction of mitral regurgitation in patients surviving with heart failure can reduce mortality and hospitalization rates, with earlier intervention yielding the best results,” commented Dr. Padala in the company’s press release. “Carlen fills a much-needed gap in safely and effectively correcting mitral regurgitation across different valve anatomies and offers the benefit of preserving the full range of other transcatheter and surgical treatments as future options.”

Dr. Padala further stated, “We methodically developed this technology with funding from the Georgia Research Alliance, Coulter Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and the Carlyle Fraser Heart Center at Emory Midtown Hospital, and upon derisking spun it off into Nyra Medical. We are enthusiastic to partner with this experienced syndicate of investors to build on Nyra’s strong momentum in product development and to advance Carlen to benefit patients in need.”

Eric L. Sarin MD, Director of the Structural Heart and Valve Program at Inova Heart and Vascular Institute in Fairfax, Virginia, and cofounder of the company, added, “A transcatheter therapy that can optimize efficacy and safety, while maintaining simplicity truly represents the ‘holy grail’ in the treatment of structural heart disease. The team at Nyra has taken this reality to heart and engineered an elegant device that addresses multiple current needs in the treatment of valvular heart disease.”