Dublin-based Mainstay Medical raises $125m for back pain product

27 Feb 2024

Image: © sorapop/Stock.adobe.com

Founded in Minneapolis in 2008, Mainstay moved to Dublin in 2012. The latest funding will help it expand its ReActiv8 product in the US, Europe and Australia.

Irish medtech company Mainstay Medical has raised $125m in an equity financing round to fund the commercial expansion of its flagship back pain product.

Led by new investors Gilde Healthcare and Viking Global Investors, the funding round also saw participation from existing backers including Ally Bridge Group, Sofinnova Partners (Crossover Fund), Fountain Healthcare Partners and Perceptive Advisors.

Mainstay said the investment will help to expand the ReActiv8 product for chronic back pain across the US, European and Australian markets and develop its post-market clinical studies and research.

CEO Jason Hannon said that financing “of this magnitude” will allow Mainstay, which moved to Dublin from Minneapolis in 2012, to accelerate its efforts to improve the treatment of mechanical chronic low back pain through the ReActiv8 product and continue to build insurance coverage for it.

“We are now strongly capitalised to execute on our corporate objectives,” he said.

“In addition to commercial expansion in our target markets, these objectives include the generation of additional clinical and health economic data to further demonstrate that ReActiv8’s purpose-built, restorative approach to the treatment of mechanical chronic low back pain is superior to competitive therapies originally designed for other indications, as well as the continued development and enforcement of our dominant intellectual property portfolio.”

Mainstay Medical was founded in 2008 after Dan Sachs filed a patent on the idea that led to ReActiv8. Earlier this week, the company announced that it has received FDA approval for the full-body MRI conditional labelling for ReActiv8. The approval provides patients implanted with ReActiv8 the ability to undergo 1.5T full-body MRI scans.

“We are excited to lead this financing and to work with Mainstay to continue to unlock the potential of ReActiv8 therapy,” said Geoff Pardo, partner at Gilde Healthcare, who also joins the Mainstay Medical board of directors.

“Patients with mechanical chronic low back pain have had very limited treatment options, and the restorative mechanism of action offered by ReActiv8 is both unique and very promising.”

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Updated, 9.20am, 27 February 2024: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Dan Sachs as managing director of Mainstay Medical. This has now been updated. We apologise for the error.

Vish Gain is a journalist with Silicon Republic

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