Medical device giant Boston Scientific has announced it has signed a decisive agreement to acquire an Israeli medical device company Sonivie For immediate payments of $360 million and milestone payments of up to $180 million. Boston Scientific already has a 10% stake in the company.
The biggest winners of this contract are the late Shmuel Almago, Zvika Slovin, formerly from Aileron, and heirs to the European venture capital funds Supernova Invest, Andera Partners, TechWald and Omega Funds. Sonivie has raised $85 million so far.
Sonivie has developed a small intravascular ultrasound device that allows the nerves to be selectively denervated around certain blood vessels to treat medical conditions related to hypertension. In particular, the system can treat nerves around the kidneys. This is one effective way to treat blood pressure. Currently, there are devices on the market that selectively damage the nerves around the kidneys, but they use radio frequency radiation rather than ultrasound. Boston Scientific reported that ultrasound energy is capable of penetrating deep into tissue, making treatment more effective and rapid.
Last year, Sonivie reported positive results from its first clinical trials in the US and Israel, and recently launched a pivotal trial that may be sufficient to submit products for FDA approval.
Sonivie was founded in 2014 with the Accelmed Fund initiative led by Uri Geiger as part of its strategy to build a company after identifying the needs of large companies. This technology was originally developed at Cardiosonics, and Accelmed has acquired the right to develop the technology solely for the field of pulmonary hypertension treatment. After Cardiosonics itself went through a crisis, when he was skeptical of the idea that the market would refuse to handle blood pressure, Sonivie’s current group of investors led the company’s investments and won Cardiosonics technology.
Sonivie has offices in Rehovot and New Jersey, and is now managed by Tomaso Zambelli, formerly an executive at a large medical device company. This technology was developed by Ariel Sverdrik. Ariel Sverdrik later invented the Sofwave Medical Aesthetic Technology (SOFW) based on ultrasound.
“I was lucky.”
Sverdlik, who developed the technology with Sonivie VP R&D or Shabtay, recalls how it started. “I was lucky. I’ve embarked on my PhD in Medical Engineering in the Ultrasound field, and I have the idea that I use intravascular ultrasound to prevent cardiac attacks. Ramott, a commercialization company at Tel Aviv University, connected me with an investor named Schmuel Almago.
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“Schmuel asked me – how much money do you need to get FDA approval? I was naive, I said: I said, $2 million. He calls me and says, ‘That’s fine.’ Almagor invested more than $10 million in the company along the way, but was not alive to see the exit.
Initially, the aim of this technique was to prevent the accumulation of calcium deposits within the arteries. “But one day I attended a meeting and saw a lecture from a new company called Ardian. They talked about the technology to deny the nerves that said they could win 5-10% of the $50 billion market.
“All funds have determined that this area is nonsense.”
Ardian was sold to Medtronic for $800 million, sparking a great deal of interest in the market. Sverdlik continues, “Abbott has invested $16 million in cardio sauce in stages.” But then the entire field crashed after Medtronic failed its testing with technology. “After the poorly planned trial failure, all the funds decided that the area was nonsense and that it really didn’t work. Abbott stopped injecting money.
Entrepreneurs began searching for capital until they found an Acceleration Fund that wanted to develop products in the field of hypertension in health. Accelmed founded Sonivie, earning the rights to this technology, and then gradually acquiring the remaining technology. This was about the point where Sverdlik left the company.
“I worked like crazy, but I didn’t see the money for five years,” he says. “I told them, ‘I’m done, I need something new.'” As part of our fundraising efforts, I met Dr. Simon Eckhouse, and when I left Cardiosonics, I turned to him and said, ‘Let’s do something.’ He said, “Your ultrasound, can it deny the underlayer of the skin without damaging the top?” I said, “Absolutely.” And sophwave was born. “It is currently trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
Published by Globes, Israel Business News -en.globes.co.il- March 4, 2025.
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