MINNEAPOLIS, March 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- BridgePoint Medical, Inc., a private company developing innovative and proprietary technology in the field of interventional cardiology for crossing coronary and peripheral chronic total occlusions (CTO), announced today that it has completed its third round of financing earlier this year, totaling $9.1 million. The round was lead by a new strategic investor and joined by existing investors New Enterprise Associates, Polaris Venture Partners, Foundation Medical Partners and Michael Berman.

Interventional cardiologists are currently unable to broadly treat patients with chronic total occlusions which comprise approximately one third of all patients with coronary artery disease and approximately one half of patients with peripheral artery disease. For these patients, the common alternative is bypass surgery or palliative care. In order to treat a CTO patient with minimally invasive therapy, a physician must first successfully cross the blockage and place a guidewire beyond the occlusion. BridgePoint Medical's CrossBoss(TM) Catheter and Stingray(TM) System are uniquely designed to facilitate guidewire placement and subsequent dilatation balloon or Drug Eluting Stent (DES) placement in this challenging anatomy.

"The inability to successfully deliver therapeutic tools severely limits patient options for CTO treatment today. We believe that BridgePoint Medical has the technology and the team to address this challenge and the potential to reduce the need for highly invasive and expensive bypass surgery," said Andrew Firlik, General Partner, Foundation Medical Partners.

In September, 2010 the company completed the U.S. Facilitated Antegrade Steering Technique in Chronic Total Occlusions (FAST-CTOs) Study. The study evaluated the ability of the CrossBoss(TM) Catheter and Stingray(TM) System to successfully and safely facilitate placement of a guidewire beyond a CTO in the vessel true lumen in cases that were otherwise refractory to treatment with a conventional guidewire. One hundred forty-seven patients were enrolled at 20 sites. The company has filed a 510(k) with the FDA requesting market clearance for the indication of coronary CTO treatments in the U.S.

The Series C financing will be used to enable marketing and sales efforts for BridgePoint's CrossBoss(TM) Catheter and Stingray(TM) System in the United States, Europe and Japan through the use of distributors and direct sales. Additionally, BridgePoint Medical will be initiating a U.S. IDE study of the technologies in peripheral artery disease in the first half of 2011.

"The addition of a new investor combined with the continuing commitment of our present investors is a testament to the significant progress we have made in the development and investigation of our CrossBoss(TM) Catheter and Stingray(TM) System. This funding will enable us to accelerate growth through initiation of commercialization activities globally," stated Michael Berman of Berman Medical and Chairman of the BridgePoint Board of directors.