ARTICLE SUMMARY:
With a transcatheter mitral valve repair product in development, early-stage Nyra Medical builds upon the concept of leaflet augmentation, and its novel dynamic device is designed to keep the door open for future treatments.
Nyra Medical is operating in transcatheter mitral valve repair, an attractive market in which there is still only one major player in the US market: Abbott with MitraClip. With a hefty $20 million Series A round and the support of investors with deep experience in medtech—Vensana Capital, Broadview Ventures, and Epidarex Capital—in addition to the Georgia Research Alliance, the start-up is off to a good start.
Nyra Medical was founded in 2018 by Murali Padala, PhD, with an exclusive license to patents he developed while he was on the faculty at Emory University. Padala is an engineer who has spent most of his career studying the mitral valve. “I did my PhD on the biomechanics of the mitral valve, how it functions and fails, and how to restore it, and it was interesting enough to continue working on it!” he exclaims. Co-founder and cardiac surgeon Eric Sarin, MD, worked with Padala at Emory, and now directs the Structural Heart and Valve Program at Inova Heart and Vascular Institute in Fairfax, VA.
In Nov 2022, the company closed its Series A financing, and as of August 2023, it has a CEO who’s well versed in growing medtech businesses. Lori Chmura previously held the chief executive role at innovative start-ups Soundbite Medical Solutions and Dune Medical, after career experience within Medtronic, Covidien, and Johnson & Johnson.
