Relievant Medsystems Announces Completion of $20 Million...( REDWOOD CITY Calif. July 7 /- Relieva...),Health

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., July 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Relievant Medsystems, Inc., developer of a novel, minimally invasive treatment for chronic low back pain, reported today that it has completed a $20 million private equity financing. The financing was led by Morgenthaler Ventures with existing investors Canaan Partners and ONSET Ventures and new investor Emergent Medical Partners participating. The company also announced that Morgenthaler partner Hank Plain has joined its Board of Directors.

"Capital raised will fund clinical research and the launch of our Intracept(TM) System to treat low back pain," commented Paul Goeld, President and Chief Executive Officer of Relievant. "The results from our small pilot study are very encouraging and we plan to initiate a larger study later this year. The multi-center trial is intended to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of our technology."

Chronic low back pain impacts nearly one-third of the population and represents the largest and most expensive non-lethal condition in our health care system. Every year, 12 million new patients seek treatment for back pain. Unfortunately, nearly two million of these patients fail to respond to conservative treatment. These patients have few choices - escalating use of pain medications, continued suffering or invasive surgery.

Based on the research of Michael Heggeness, MD, PhD of the Baylor College of Medicine, Relievant's Intracept System treats chronic low back pain with a simple, minimally invasive procedure. In a small pilot study, treated patients reported immediate pain relief and returned to normal activities the next day.

"We were immediately attracted to Relievant's technology," said Hank Plain of Morgenthaler Ventures. "Their product addresses the largest segment of the back pain market with a relatively easy intervention that takes less than one hour to complete. We invested in Reliev
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