Financing Round Planned to Fund the U.S. Commercial Launch of iStent®, in Addition to U.S. IDE Pivotal Registration Studies of Second and Third Generations of iStent inject® and iStent supra®
Laguna Hills, CA (February 5, 2013) - Glaukos Corporation, the founder and leader of the new ophthalmic market class, Micro-Invasive Glaucoma Surgery (MIGS), announced today that it has closed $30 million in financing to fund the U.S. commercial launch of the iStent trabecular micro-bypass device and the U.S. IDE pivotal registration studies of iStent inject, a second generation trabecular bypass implant, and iStent supra, a new suprachoroidal implant. iStent received FDA U.S. market approval in June 2012 and is the first and only MIGS glaucoma implant device that is commercially available in the United States.
The financing was led by Meritech Capital Partners and joined by an existing group of premier investors including Versant Ventures, Domain Associates, Montreux Equity Partners, InterWest Partners, Frazier Healthcare, OrbiMed Advisors and Gund Investment Corporation.
Meritech Capital is a prominent venture firm whose recent investments include IntraLase, Facebook, Acclarent, Yammer, NetSuite and Salesforce. “Glaukos Corporation has developed and built an entirely new market class and market category in ophthalmology that will provide compelling alternatives for the treatment of glaucoma disease”, said Paul Madera, Managing Director of Meritech Capital Partners. “We are delighted to invest in a senior team that has pioneered a complete portfolio of leading MIGS devices, created two Category III CPT codes that govern physician and facility reimbursement for the implantation of these MIGS implants and established full national Medicare coverage for its flagship MIGS device within the first six months of its controlled U.S. commercial launch.”
Since its founding in 2001, the Glaukos mission remains to charter and build the emerging MIGS marketplace. The company was recently recognized by the Wall Street Journal in 2012 as a premier national healthcare venture-funded company.
“We are privileged to have attracted and work with such preeminent venture firms and to have executed the series of step-up, capital financings required to build this new MIGS marketplace,” said Thomas W. Burns, Chief Executive Officer of Glaukos. “Our mission is to create a legacy and new class of micro-invasive surgical treatments that can offer powerful clinical alternatives for the treatment of open-angle glaucoma.”
About Glaukos Corporation
Glaukos Corporation is a privately-held ophthalmic device company located in Laguna Hills, California, that is dedicated to the research and development of micro-technologies to improve glaucoma therapy. The company has developed a portfolio of microstent devices to treat glaucoma, including the iStent Trabecular Micro-Bypass stent, the first and only FDA-approved device for the treatment of mildto-moderate open-angle glaucoma in conjunction with cataract surgery.