Flow Medical Closes $6 Million Financing for Pulmonary Embolism Treatment Platform

Flow Medical, a medical technology company spun out of the University of Chicago developing treatments for pulmonary embolism (PE), has announced the completion of a $6 million financing round from multiple strategic medical device investors to support first-in-human clinical evaluation of its HELYX-PE System, continued product development and manufacturing activities, and preparations for a U.S. pivotal study.

Pulmonary embolism is a potentially life-threatening condition caused by blood clots obstructing blood flow to the lungs. While catheter-based therapies have expanded treatment options, opportunities remain to improve how thrombolytic drugs are delivered and how physicians assess patient response during treatment. The HELYX-PE System is an investigational 9 French catheter-directed thrombolysis platform that combines an expandable infusion scaffold, integrated angiography, and continuous pulmonary artery pressure monitoring. Designed by interventional physicians and Flow Medical co-founders Osman Ahmed, MD, and Jonathan Paul, MD, the system is intended to improve drug distribution, streamline procedures, and provide real-time information to help physicians make more informed treatment decisions. The financing builds on Flow Medical’s preclinical development and testing, with proceeds also supporting the manufacturing, quality, and regulatory activities necessary to advance the system through its next stages of development.

Jonathan Paul, MD, Co-Founder of Flow Medical, is Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Pulmonary Embolism Response Team (PERT) at UChicago Medicine, whose Heart and Vascular Center is recognized by The PERT Consortium as a Comprehensive Center of Excellence for pulmonary embolism care. The multidisciplinary PERT program evaluates approximately 500 patients annually.

Jennifer Fried, CEO and Co-Founder of Flow Medical, said the company believes there is a tremendous opportunity to improve how pulmonary embolism is treated. Fried noted that Flow Medical’s goal is to give physicians better tools and better information to deliver safer, more efficient, and more personalized care.

Jonathan Paul, MD, Co-Founder of Flow Medical, said that having spent years caring for patients with pulmonary embolism, the team has seen firsthand where existing treatments fall short and how much opportunity there is to improve care. Paul noted that it is exciting to be approaching the opportunity to evaluate the technology in the company’s first patients, and that translating what the team has learned in clinical practice into a new approach to treatment is exactly why Flow Medical was started.