EBAMed closes a CHF 1.2 million seed financing round

Based in Geneva, EBAMed is developing a medical device to enable non-invasive heart motion imaging and real-time synchronization of the therapeutic beam. The solution will enhance proton therapy, a precise non-invasive treatment option for heart arrhythmia patients. Heart arrhythmias are disruptions in the normal heartbeat, which affect around 15 million people in Europe and North America and are expected to at least double in the next 50 years.

The foundational understanding of the use of protons for arrhythmia treatment is based on pre-clinical research performed by Douglas Packer, M.D. at the Mayo Clinic. EBAMed‘s hardware and the software will expand treatment possibilities for existing proton therapy centres, enabling them for the first time to treat heart patients. Mayo Clinic and Dr Packer have a financial interest in the technology referenced in this article. 

The startup has completed a CHF 1.2 million seed financing round led by Fongit Seed Invest with the support of FONGIT. Several investors also participated in the round. The proceeds will be used to test EBAMed‘s first integrated ultrasound-based device to monitor heart motion and command the therapy machine. These pre-clinical tests are planned for 2020 in at least one proton therapy centre in Europe or the United States.

 „EBAMed’s medical device provides a non-invasive method to safely perform ablation using proton beams. The latter has the physical characteristic of depositing most of their energy in the last few millimetres of their path. By adjusting the beam’s position and energy, the targeted 3D volume - in this case, the heart - can be precisely covered, sparing surrounding healthy tissues”, says Giovanni Leo, Chairman of the Board and medtech industry veteran.

“Today, there are major limitations in the treatment of heart arrhythmias using invasive catheters,” said Adriano Garonna, PhD, CEO of EBAMed. “By bringing the first medical product for proton therapy of heart arrhythmias to the market, we believe we can provide medical doctors with an effective and practical method to treat more patients at an earlier stage of the disease before their quality of life has dropped significantly due to their heart arrhythmia.”

(Press release)