Scottish Equity Partners Leads $17 Million Investment in Heartscape to Fund U.S. Commercial Launch of PRIME ECG and Clinical Registry of Heart Attack Patients

Leading UK venture capital firm Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) has led a $17 million investment in healthcare pioneer Heartscape Technologies, which has launched an innovative and potentially powerful device for the early and accurate diagnosis of heart attacks in emergency room patients.

The Heartscape device, PRIME ECG®, which is designed primarily for use in hospital emergency departments, has already obtained FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approval in the United States. The device provides doctors with more detailed images and information on a patient’s heart than traditional electrocardiograms (ECGs), helping save lives through early diagnosis.

Heartscape Technologies Chief Executive Officer Arthur Hiller said: “For heart attack victims rapid diagnosis can mean the difference between life and death and impacts a patient’s long-term prognosis. A significant opportunity exists for PRIME ECG to benefit patients by improving the speed of diagnosis and hospital efficiency in managing high-risk cardiovascular patients.”

Heartscape, which has its research and development and manufacturing base in Northern Ireland and its commercial team in the USA in Boston and Columbia, Maryland, will use the new funds for the commercial launch of PRIME ECG in the United States and for further clinical development.

SEP (Scottish Equity Partners) led second-round funding as part of an international investment syndicate which includes Investor Growth Capital of Sweden and existing investors Radius Ventures from New York and Delta Partners from Ireland.

Brian Kerr, Investment Director in SEP’s Healthcare and Life Sciences team, said: “PRIME ECG represents the first major advance in non-invasive cardiovascular diagnostic devices for years. Clinical results have demonstrated its effectiveness as a front-line diagnostic tool and we believe it has the potential to become the standard of care in this field. It is precisely this sort of breakthrough and disruptive technology that builds value for investors and increases the standard of healthcare. We are pleased to add Heartscape to our portfolio of healthcare pioneers.”

Brian Kerr and co-investor Dr Joachim Werr of Investor Growth Capital in Europe will join the board of Heartscape.

Dr Werr said: “PRIME ECG has the potential to fundamentally improve the way we diagnose myocardial infarction and treat coronary heart disease, the most costly and fatal disease in the EU and USA. PRIME ECG will allow early diagnosis and treatment of myocardial infarctions that are missed by the traditional 12-lead ECG. It will enable doctors to make an early identification of patients who need aggressive therapies, angioplasty or surgery to lessen the risk of longer term heart muscle damage. We are excited about Heartscape and the launch of the PRIME ECG.”

Jordan Davis, Managing Partner at Radius Ventures in New York, said: “We are very pleased that the Heartscape team has received funding from a strong international venture syndicate with substantial expertise in the life sciences. Their significant investment further validates the importance of PRIME ECG technology as a major new clinical tool to deliver the best outcomes in the critical moments following admission of patients with chest pain suspected to be of cardiac origin.”

Early diagnosis and treatment are proven to result in better clinical outcomes, and patients whose heart attacks are not diagnosed at an early stage require further expensive diagnostic tests or treatment. Hospitals are also focused on enhancing their efficiency in managing heart attack patients as part of the recently announced “pay for performance” quality initiatives introduced by the government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). This program rewards top-performing hospitals with increased reimbursement for their ability to meet quality standards around management of MI and other key areas of care.

For more information, please visit www.heartscape.com