PROVIDENCE – The Afferent Corp., an early-stage medical device company focused on treating chronic neurologic dysfunction, says it has raised $4 million in private financing and over $2.2 million in National Institutes of Health research grants to support product development, clinical testing, regulatory filings and initial market entry.
New Science Ventures LLC of New York led the company’s Series-A financing. It was joined by New England-based co-investors Point Judith Capital Partners, Long River Ventures, and Village Ventures, and Nitta Corporation of Japan. All current institutional investors – Boston University, the Slater Center for Biomedical Technology, and Pharos LLC – also participated.
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Afferent’s core technology is being developed as a means to treat diabetic neuropathy, improve post-stroke rehabilitation, and prevent elderly falls. By enhancing the function of mechanoreceptor cells involved in sensory perception, the company’s devices increase “afferent signaling,” the flow of neurological information that originates in the extremities and travels to the central nervous system.
Afferent is now conducting animal and human pre-clinical studies at academic medical centers throughout the United States and Canada, including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital (affiliates of Harvard Medical School), and Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
“Afferent is well positioned to take advantage of an emerging health care trend of treating neurological problems directly with medical devices,” said Somu Subramaniam, Managing Partner of New Science Ventures, in a news release. “The company’s primary advantage in the marketplace is its exceptional expertise in the area of neurosensory stimulation, and its ability to provide new treatment options for literally millions of patients in the U.S. and abroad.”
Fully half of the 16 million diabetics in the United States could eventually suffer from nervous system damage that may be responsive to treatment with Afferent’s technology, the company says. The American Stroke Association has said more than 700,000 individuals will suffer a stroke this year, and that some 4.5 million people in the United States have a chronic disability resulting from stroke. The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control has estimated the annual cost of fall-related injuries among the 35 million elderly in the United States to be $20 billion.
