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Houston medical device company closes $30 million round

Houston-based Procyrion has closed a $30 million round — doubling its total funding to date. Getty Images

A clinical-stage medical device company based in Houston has rounded up $30 million for its Series D funding. Procyrion Inc.'s round was lead by Bluebird Ventures — a new funding partner for the company.

Procyrion is developing a blood pump, called the Aortix™ system, that's optimized for patients with heart and kidney failure. Joining in on the round with Bluebird are return investors, including Fannin Partners, Scientific Health Development, the State of Texas, and an undisclosed strategic investor. This round has now more than doubled the company's total funding, bringing that figure now to $59 million.

"Of the more than 1 million patients per year in the U.S. admitted to the hospital with acute decompensated heart failure, 25 to 30 percent also have worsening renal function," says Eric S. Fain, president and CEO of the company, in a release. "These are typically the most difficult to treat patients with high mortality and rehospitalization rates."

The funds, Fain says, will go toward advancing the medical device, specifically enhancing the system's ability to decongest cardio renal patients in the company's pilot program.

"Today there is a major gap in effective therapies that are available to treat these critically ill patients, and as such, there is a significant opportunity to improve patient outcomes," Fain continues in the release. "The Aortix device is uniquely designed and positioned in the body to simultaneously decrease the workload of the heart and improve kidney function."

The Aortix device is a solution for patients who haven't seen success from medical therapy, but don't have the immediate need for a transplant or more drastic solution. The device is thinner than a pencil, the release says, and can be inserted in a matter of minutes in a cath-lab setting. The size and ease of application could be transformational for the large population of heart patients that would need it.

In addition to the funds, Jeff Bird, managing director of Bluebird Ventures, will join the company's board of directors.

"The Procyrion Aortix device provides an elegant solution for managing heart failure, a serious and difficult-to-treat problem," says Bird in the release. "We are excited to work with this experienced team as they begin clinical testing."


The device is thinner than a pencil and can be inserted in less than 10 minutes. Photo via procyrion.com

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Building Houston

 
 

Baylor College of Medicine's Lillie and Roy Cullen Tower is set to open in 2026. Rendering courtesy of BCM

Baylor College of Medicine has collected $100 million toward its $150 million fundraising goal for the college’s planned Lillie and Roy Cullen Tower.

The $100 million in gifts include:

  • A total of $30 million from The Cullen Foundation, The Cullen Trust for Health Care, and The Cullen Trust for Higher Education.
  • $12 million from the DeBakey Medical Foundation
  • $10 million from the Huffington Foundation
  • More than $45 million from members of Baylor’s Board of Trustees and other community donors, including the M.D. Anderson Foundation, the Albert and Margaret Alkek Foundation, and The Elkins Foundation.

“The Cullen Trust for Health Care is very honored to support this building along with The Cullen Foundation and The Cullen Trust for Higher Education,” Cullen Geiselman Muse, chair of The Cullen Trust for Health Care, says in a news release. “We cannot wait to see what new beginnings will come from inside the Lillie and Roy Cullen Tower.”

The Baylor campus is next to Texas Medical Center’s Helix Park, a 37-acre project. Rendering courtesy of BCM

The Lillie and Roy Cullen Tower is set to open in 2026. The 503,000-square-foot tower is the first phase of Baylor’s planned Health Sciences Park, an 800,000-square-foot project that will feature medical education and research adjacent to patient care at Baylor Medicine and Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center on the McNair Campus.

The Baylor campus is next to Texas Medical Center’s Helix Park, a 37-acre project that will support healthcare, life sciences, and business ventures. Baylor is the anchor tenant in the first building being constructed at Helix Park.

“To really change the future of health, we need a space that facilitates the future,” says Dr. Paul Klotman, president, CEO, and executive dean of Baylor. “We need to have a great building to recruit great talent. Having a place where our clinical programs are located, where our data scientists are, next to a biotech development center, and having our medical students all integrated into that environment will allow them to be ready in the future for where healthcare is going.”

In the 1940s, Lillie and Roy Cullen and the M.D. Anderson Foundation were instrumental in establishing the Texas Medical Center, which is now the world’s largest medical complex.

“Baylor is the place it is today because of philanthropy,” Klotman says. “The Cullen family, the M.D. Anderson Foundation, and the Albert and Margaret Alkek Foundation have been some of Baylor’s most devoted champions, which has enabled Baylor to mold generations of exceptional health sciences professionals. It is fitting that history is repeating itself with support for this state-of-the-art education building.”

The Cullen Foundation donated $30 million to the project. Rendering courtesy of BCM

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