Neurent Medical is a Galway-based medical device company specialising the treatment of rhinitis, an inflammatory disease of the nose. The company, having spun out of NUI Galway, is developing a low risk, single use device that will enable a novel kind of therapy be performed in a doctor’s office under local anaesthetic. This treatment option provides significantly lower risk to patients than current interventions which require the use of an operating theatre. Widespread use of the device will also remove substantial cost from the healthcare system.
The company emerged from the Enterprise Ireland BioInnovate programme at NUI Galway in 2015 and benefitted from €495k in Enterprise Ireland commercialisation funding. In May 2018 Neurent Medical announced that it had raised €9.3m ($11m) in a Series A Financing round led by Fountain Healthcare Partners and with participation from Atlantic Bridge Capital, the Western Development Commission, Enterprise Ireland and a syndicate of Irish and US medical device veterans. This is the largest VC backed fundraising event for a University Medtech Spinout company in Europe in the last decade. On the back of this investment Neurent Medical plans to recruit 25 staff into the company by the end of 2021.
The Technology Transfer Office at NUI Galway has provided support to the company from its inception and the company acknowledges the support it has received “Collaborating with RPOs is hugely valuable in the early stage of product development in life sciences. The global expertise on our doorstep at CURAM is something which every life science start up should be trying to leverage when answering big research questions. The founding team were supported by the TTO from the earliest concept in 2015. Their support in patent filings was invaluable enabling the company to inherit a very early IP position.” said Brian Shields CEO at Neurent Medical.
The relationship between Neurent Medical and NUI Galway is strong with the company funding a collaborative research programme that began in 2019. In addition, the company and the university were also successful in securing €2.8m funding under the first call of the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) for a project set to begin in 2019 which will enable the company to expedite plans for second generation technology. Brian Shields, co-founder of Neurent Medical with David Townley, was named Enterprise Ireland’s high potential start-up Founder of the Year in 2019.
Publish date: 2018
Find out more about working with third-level research