Yesterday, Redwood City, California-based HeartFlow, a company that specializes in creating computerized heart models to treat coronary diseases, announced that it landed $240 million in series E funding led by Wellington Management Company and Baillie Gifford & Company.
“This financing will enable us to drive commercial success of the HeartFlow Analysis, which is poised to become the global standard of care in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease,” Dr. John H. Stevens, president and chief executive officer of HeartFlow, said in a statement. “Given our recent momentum with clinicians, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, commercial payers, and strategic collaborators, we are well positioned for growth.”
The HeartFlow Analysis technology uses data from CT scans to create a personalized 3D model of the coronary arteries and analyzes the impacts that blockages have on flow. The idea is for clinicians to able to identify coronary artery disease without the patient undergoing an invasive procedure. Clincians can then use the model to determine the best way to treat the condition.
On the company’s webpage, HeartFlow claims that 61 percent of its patients avoided an invasive angiogram, and that the technology reduces medical costs by 26 percent compared with normal testing for patients with suspected coronary artery disease.
The new funds are expected to help HeartFlow increase its commercial expansion of the product and continue technology development and additional clinical studies. Currently the technology is used in 80 hospitals around the world, including in the US and UK.
In July, HeartFlow announced that it has teamed up with GE Health to increase the clinical availability and adoption of the HeartFlow Analysis. The partnership was designed to utilize GE Healthcare’s cardiac CT scanners and HeartFlow’s technology.
HeartFlow was founded in 2007 and has since raised a total of $476.6 million in funding, according to Crunchbase.
“Heart disease is the leading cause of death globally, in part owing to the difficulties around diagnosis,” Peter Singlehurst, investment manager at Baillie Gifford & Company, said in a statement. “The HeartFlow Analysis improves patient experience and outcomes, whilst also reducing costs for overstretched healthcare systems — a dual objective that many healthcare companies strive for but few achieve. The underlying technology developed by HeartFlow also has the potential for broader applications for heart disease and other conditions. The capital raised here will enable HeartFlow to push forward with commercialization and invest for long-term success by continuing to advance the ways in which it can help patients and physicians.”
