Company Making Femoral Artery Access Device Raises $16.5 million

A California-based medical device company that makes a femoral artery access device is seeking $19 million and has raised $16.5 million of that, according to a regulatory filing.

Arstasis makes the Axera 2 self-sealing device that creates femoral access at an angle that allows the area to be closed without needing external closure devices that leave behind material of some kind. That has the potential to reduce complications with vascular closure implants.

The company was founded in 2004 and the first generation Axera device was cleared by the FDA but in October 2010, the company recalled the product. Later the FDA classified the recall as a Class I, the most serious of recalls for a product’s potential to injure or kill patients.

That device, composed of three different components, had the potential to separate during patient use.

A call and email to Mark Page, Arstasis’ Senior Director of Marketing, to discuss what the $16.5 million is going to be used for, wasn’t immediately returned.

[Photo Credit: iStockphoto.com user AlexSava]

-- By Arundhati Parmar, Senior Editor, MD+DI
[email protected]