2016 Medtech Company of the Year Finalists: CVRx

CVRx's Barostim Neo treats high blood pressure and heart failure using pacemaker technology.

Minneapolis-based CVRx's technology is another great example of pacemaker technology being used in areas of the body other than the heart. It is a lucrative area of expansion in the medical device industry, with electrical stimulation being used to treat everything from seizures to obesity to pain.

CVRx's implantable Barostim Neo system targets the blood pressure sensors, called baroreceptors, found on the carotid artery and in the carotid sinus in the neck. Electrically stimulating the body's baroreflex "triggers the body's own natural blood flow regulation system" to treat high blood pressure and heart failure, according to the company. Investors are excited about the technology. CVRx has raised $93 million in venture capital in 2016, according to the MoneyTree Report from by PricewaterhouseCoopers, based on data from Thomson Reuters.

The device has the CE Mark and may be sold in Europe but is limited to investigational use in the United States, although it has received an Expedited Access Pathway designation from FDA. In June, CVRx announced that the first two patients had been treated with the Barostim Neo system in the Baroreflex Activation Therapy for Heart Failure Pivotal Clinical Trial, which is meant to provide the basis for U.S. market approval.