Reprieve Cardiovascular Emerges From Stealth Mode With $42M Financing

Reprieve Cardiovascular Inc. has raised $42 million in a series A financing round co-led by Lightstone Ventures and Sante Ventures and joined by Deerfield Management, Genesis Capital, and Arboretum Ventures. The funding will advance the company’s clinical and development programs, including the ongoing FASTR trial and its upcoming pivotal trial.
 
More than 6.7 million Americans are currently living with heart failure today.¹ Acute Decompensated Heart Failure (ADHF) is the sudden or gradual onset of the signs or symptoms of heart failure (difficulty breathing, leg or feet swelling, and fatigue) requiring unplanned office visits, emergency room visits, or hospitalizations. Specifically, ADHF is caused by a rapid onset of fluid volume overload. More than 1 million patients a year are admitted with a primary heart failure diagnosis² in the United States, and millions more around the world, with an average hospital stay of more than five days.³ However,, nearly one in four patients are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days to re-treat fluid volume overload, and approximately half are back within six months.⁴
 
“Today, the standard of care for heart failure patient fluid removal is diuretics. Originally approved 60 years ago, diuretics remain the primary treatment option but can be difficult to administer optimally without real-time patient information,” Reprieve Cardiovascular CEO Mark Pacyna said.
 
Intended to personalize decongestion management and safely, quickly, and completely remove excess fluid to improve patient outcomes and prevent hospital readmissions, the Reprieve System monitors physiological parameters such as urine output to deliver personalized diuretic dosing and fluid replacement for patients with ADHF. “Reprieve Cardiovascular is bringing intelligent decongestion management to heart failure patients. The Reprieve System provides physicians and care teams added visibility and control throughout treatment,” Pacyna noted.

The company is currently conducting the FASTR Trial (Fluid management of Acute decompensated heart failure Subjects Treated with Reprieve system). The objective of this pilot study is to determine if decongestive therapy administered by the Reprieve System can more efficiently decongest ADHF patients as compared to standard-of-care diuretic therapy. This trial is enrolling patients in the United States and Europe. 

“We’re excited to share the Reprieve story as the company emerges from stealth mode ahead of their pivotal trial,” Arboretum Ventures Founding/Managing Partner Jan Garfinkle stated. “The Series A funding reinforces our belief in the Reprieve team, and in the need for a new technology that can improve the lives of patients suffering from acute decompensated heart failure around the world.”
 
Reprieve Cardiovascular, Inc. is developing therapies that aim to improve the lives of more than 25 million heart failure patients worldwide. Reprieve is bringing intelligence to decongestion management to safely accelerate fluid removal for heart failure patients. In 2022, Reprieve initiated the FASTR Trial (pilot study) to compare decongestive therapy administered by the Reprieve Decongestion Management System to Optimal Diuretic Therapy in treating patients diagnosed with acute decompensated heart failure.  Reprieve is a privately held  company headquartered in Milford, Mass.
 
References
¹ Tsao, C. W., Aday, A. W., Almarzooq, Z. I., Anderson, C. A. M., Arora, P., Avery, C. L., Baker-Smith, C. M., Beaton, A. Z., Boehme, A. K., Buxton, A. E., Commodore-Mensah, Y., Elkind, M. S. V., Evenson, K. R., Eze-Nliam, C., Fugar, S., Generoso, G., Heard, D. G., Hiremath, S., Ho, J. E., & Kalani, R. (2023). Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics—2023 Update: A Report From the American Heart Association. Circulation, 147(8). https://doi.org/10.1161/cir.0000000000001123
² Kuno T, Briasoulis A, Tsugawa Y. National Trends in Heart Failure Hospitalization and Readmissions Associated With Policy Changes. JAMA Cardiol. 2022;7(1):114. doi:10.1001/jamacardio.2021.4416
³ Akintoye, E., Briasoulis, A., Egbe, A., Dunlay, S. M., Kushwaha, S., Levine, D., Afonso, L., Mozaffarian, D., & Weinberger, J. (2017). National Trends in Admission and In‐Hospital Mortality of Patients With Heart Failure in the United States (2001–2014). Journal of the American Heart Association: Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Disease, 6(12). https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.117.006955
⁴ Khan, M. S., Sreenivasan, J., Lateef, N., Abougergi, M. S., Greene, S. J., Ahmad, T., Anker, S. D., Fonarow, G. C., & Butler, J. (2021). Trends in 30- and 90-Day Readmission Rates for Heart Failure. Circulation: Heart Failure, 14(4).  https://doi.org/10.1161/circheartfailure.121.008335