Medical Device Startup CivaTech Raises $1M

Research Triangle Park, N.C. — CivaTech Oncology, a startup developing a medical device for use in treating prostate cancer, has closed on $1 million in Series B funding.

CivaTech, which launched in 2006, is led by Robert and Claudia Black, two of the founders of Triangle-based Sicel Technologies, and Suzanne Babcock, a former executive with Troxler Electronics.

The company did not identify its investors. It raised $800,000 last June,

“We believe our product will become the gold standard,” states Robert Black, who is the company’s president. “Our approach will allow clinicians to provide a customized radiation source, which will help to ensure optimized patient treatment.”

CivaTech is preparing to seek Food and Drug Administration approval for its first product that is designed to deliver radiation treatment in what the company describes as a radioactive “sting.”

The device is designed to deliver radiation through a method called brachytherapy in which radioactive sources called “seeds” are implanted to destroy tumors. Brachytherapy is already used to fight prostate cancer.

Instead of one seed, CivaTech has developed a means of implanting a string of seeds that it says “should provide more uniform and consistent” radiation therapy.

CivaTech is also developing a means of treating coronary artery restenosis, or narrowing of the arteries.

The Blacks are familiar with implantable devices. Sicel sells implantable sensors. Robert Black was the founding chief executive officer of Sicel.