Flow Forward Raises $5.7 Million in Series A Funding

Olathe, Kan.-based Flow Forward Medical Inc., which makes vascular access products aimed at improving outcomes for hemodialys patients, has closed a $1.3 million round of additional series A funding led by existing investor, the Kansas Bioscience Authority (KBA). Flow Forward previously raised $4.4 million in series A funding, bringing the total in equity funding raised to date to approximately $5.7 million. The proceeds from this series will be used to continue the development of Flow Forward’s Arteriovenous Fistula Eligibility (AFE) system, a small, minimally invasive blood pump system designed for temporary use to rapidly dilate peripheral veins through flow-mediated vascular remodeling prior to arteriovenous fistula (AVF) surgery.

Flow Forward is also receiving a $225,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The SBIR funding will be used to test peripheral vein dilation with the AFE System prior to AVF creation in a nonclinical model.

“Many of the two million patients on hemodialysis worldwide who undergo conventional surgical AVF creation each year experience vascular access site failure, which is associated with increased morbidity. With its AFE System, Flow Forward is addressing issues known to contribute to AVF failure,” said Tom Krol, managing director at KBA and a member of Flow Forward’s board of directors. “In early studies conducted in a challenging nonclinical model, the company has shown much more rapid vein dilation, large increases in blood flow and a significant reduction in vein wall scarring, when compared with conventional AVF creation. We believe that the AFE system has the potential to drive broad increases in AVF eligibility as well as large reductions in AVF failure.”

Kurt Dasse, Ph.D.,  was appointed to Flow Forward’s board of directors in conjunction with the funding from KBA. Dasse has spent nearly three decades conducting cardiovascular research and developing products to treat heart, lung and kidney diseases. He is currently president and CEO of GeNO LLC, a biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation delivery systems for inhaled nitric oxide, a pharmacologic blood vessel dilator. He was previously President and CEO of Levitronix LLC, a developer and manufacturer of rotary blood pump systems for cardiopulmonary support that was acquired by Thoratec Corporation in 2011.

“I am pleased to have additional financial resources from KBA and the NIH’s SBIR program to accelerate the development of the AFE System,” said F. Nicholas Franano, M.D., president and CEO of Flow Forward. “I also welcome Kurt to our board. His decades of industry experience and deep domain experience in cardiovascular biology and physiology will be invaluable as we work to realize our goal of providing physicians more and better options when creating vascular access sites for hemodialysis patients.”