Spinal Device Firm Vertos Medical Raises $23M in Series E Round

California-based Vertos Medical announced Wednesday that the company raised $23 million in a Series E financing round from new and existing investors.

Pitango Venture Capital, a new investor, led the round while Vertos' existing investors - ONSET Ventures, CHL Medical Partners, Foundation Medical Partners, Mercury Fund and Aweida Venture Partners - also participated. Earlier this year, the company raised $1.8 million, according to a regulatory filing.

Vertos Medical has developed the FDA-cleared outpatient procedure entitled "mild," which aims to help lumbar spinal stenosis patients stand longer and walk with less pain. The money will be used to launch the procedure in Europe and expand its commercial use in the U.S., according to a Vertos Medical news release.

"We have an extraordinary opportunity to address a frequent and often debilitating condition with a low-cost, efficacious outpatient procedure. We intend to build on current momentum and continue our efforts to provide mild as a new treatment option for LSS patients and establish it as a standard of care," said James Corbett, the company's president and CEO, said in the statement.

Vertos' website states that the procedure has been performed on 15,000 patients and that it has been found to be safe and effective in 11 clinical trials and more than 16 published peer-reviewed clinical journal articles.

The American Association of Neurological Surgeons estimates that there are 400,000 Americans, most of them over the age of 60, who suffer from lumbar spinal stenosis.

-- By Arundhati Parmar, Senior Editor, MD+DI