Tryton Medical raises $24 million

Medical device company Tryton Medical has raised $24 million in new funding that it expects will see it through approval of its first product for the U.S. market.

The privately held Durham company announced Monday that it received the funding from its current investors. Tryton, which has 22 employees and previously raised $37 million in venture capital, moved its headquarters from Boston to Durham in 2008.

Tryton's stents aren't yet available in the U.S. market but have been approved and are commercially available in Europe, Russia and the Middle East, where it has been used to treat more than 6,500 patients.

The company's stents are designed to prop open bifurcated arteries -- arteries that divide into a main artery and a "side branch" -- to avoid blockages that can lead to heart attacks. Stents now available to U.S. physicians don't work well for bifurcated arteries.

"This financing, which is expected to see the company through U.S. approval of the Tryton Side Branch Stent, demonstrates continued confidence and enthusiasm from our current investors," CEO Shawn P. McCarthy said in a statement.

The money also will be used to develop a new stent system and "to accelerate access into critical global markets, specifically in Asia," he added.

Tryton anticipates submitting an application for approval to the Food and Drug Administration later this year.

Raising $21 million in venture capital is a noteworthy achievement in what is currently a difficult funding environment.

The amount of money raised by Triangle companies during the first three quarters of 2012 -- $82.8 million -- over the first three quarters of 2012 was the worst for local companies since The News & Observer began reporting the amount of funding raised each quarter in 1999.

Indeed, the $21 million raised by Triton exceeds the amounts raised by Triangle companies collectively in each of the first two quarters of last year, according to accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data supplied by Thomson Reuters.