Nimbus Synergies Co-Leads $2.26 Million Investment in Arbutus Medical to Accelerate Market Adoption of Skeletal Traction Innovation

Nimbus Synergies is pleased to announce the completion of a $2.26 million follow-on investment in portfolio company Arbutus Medical. This investment was led by Nimbus Synergies and Genome BC’s Industry Innovation (I²) Fund to support the commercialization of Arbutus Medical’s TrakPak® – a complete single-use procedure kit that contains everything a surgeon needs for skeletal traction. Syndicate partners for this financing round included Canadian health tech and impact investment funds MEDTEQ Invest, ScaleGood Impact Fund, and ThresholdImpact.

Arbutus Medical, in partnership with DEWALT®, expands the potential applications for high-quality power tools transforming them into sterile surgical drills for hospitals and field settings using its innovative surgical drill technology. This technology eliminates the need for hospitals to sterilize a drill between surgeries, providing a significant cost and time advantage compared to conventional sterilizable drills.

TrakPak® is our first consumable procedure kit designed to streamline an orthopaedic trauma procedure called skeletal traction commonly used to help treat femur and pelvis fractures,” said Lawrence Buchan, CEO of Arbutus Medical. “By bundling everything in one sterile-packed kit alongside our drills, we believe surgeons can save upwards of 45 minutes per patient. This reduces staff frustration with lengthy procedure times and improves the patient experience.”

To date, Arbutus Medical’s products have been used by customers in 40 countries enabling an estimated 85,000 surgeries. The solution has been cleared by the FDA and Health Canada.

“Arbutus’ positive impact for patients across so many diverse medical settings around the world has been remarkable and a privilege to witness and support as its largest investor,” said Paul Geyer, CEO of Nimbus Synergies. “This financing will support Arbutus’ launch and rapid scale-up of the next generation of TrakPak® this year as it aims to set a new standard of care for skeletal traction across Trauma Centers in the U.S. and beyond.”

Beyond skeletal traction, Arbutus Medical sees a significant market opportunity to develop a complete portfolio of sterile-packed procedure kits alongside their surgical drill platform to help surgeons and patients in many contexts from Trauma Centers’ ERs to Ambulatory Surgery Centers, veterinarians, and hospitals worldwide.

ABOUT NIMBUS SYNERGIES

Nimbus Synergies leads early-stage financings in innovative and complementary health technology companies in Canada. By bringing these companies together to share resources, industry specific knowledge, and relationships, Nimbus is accelerating their growth and increasing their likelihood of success. Nimbus is significantly impacting the health technology sector through its leadership as investor, partner, and mentor.

ABOUT ARBUTUS MEDICAL

Arbutus Medical Inc. is a privately held ISO13485 medical device company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. Arbutus Medical is developing innovative surgical drill technology and sterile-packed orthopaedic procedure kits that save time and money for hospitals. The company is currently focused on improving the standard of care for bedside skeletal traction surgeries that help treat orthopaedic trauma in the ERs of large Trauma Centers. Arbutus Medical’s TrakPak® skeletal traction procedure kit (which includes its patented DrillCover Technology, SteriGo® power tool drape, SteriTrak® traction pin driving system, and QuikBow™ pin tensioner) has received regulatory clearances from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and Health Canada. In addition to its premium skeletal traction solution, the company distributes a line of surgical drills available at accessible price points to customers around the globe.

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Nimbus Synergies Appoints New Board Member Michael Ball to Enhance Leadership in Canadian Health Tech

Nimbus Synergies, investor, partner, and mentor to Canada’s most promising health technology companies, is pleased to announce the appointment of Michael Ball to the Board of Directors of Discovery Parks and Nimbus Synergies. Michael was also appointed to  Nimbus’ Health Tech Investment Committee. Michael Ball is an industry veteran with over 30 years of global business experience leading and scaling innovative healthcare start-ups to exit through C-suite, board, and advisory roles.

“It is an exciting time to be a part of Canada’s flourishing health tech sector and I am thrilled to serve on the Board of an organization that is well-aligned to support the needs of this industry as an increasingly important constituent,” said Michael Ball.

Based in San Diego, Michael is the Founder and CEO of Marketech Solutions, a consultancy providing strategic expertise in the precision health, life sciences, genomics, and diagnostics industries. Prior to this, Michael was the CEO of Canexia Health, a clinical diagnostics company based out of Vancouver, BC, specializing in liquid biopsy testing for cancer patients. He also served as the Global VP of Informatics at Illumina, a $50B leader in the Genomics space, after his role as CEO at GenoLogics, a venture-backed startup that was acquired by Illumina in 2015. Michael also serves on the Board of the Canary Foundation, a non-profit that has raised over $64 million to support research aimed at creating reliable and affordable early detection tests for cancer, and is an active mentor for Creative Destruction Labs (CDL) - Vancouver.

“Michael’s expertise and leadership in health tech make him a welcomed addition to Nimbus’ Board to help guide us through our next phase of growth while providing mentorship to our current portfolio companies,” said Paul Geyer, CEO of Discovery Parks & Nimbus Synergies. “I look forward to his insights and contributions moving forward as we enhance our value to our key stakeholders.”

Michael’s appointment coincides with long-time life sciences champion and leader David Main’s retirement from Nimbus’ Board, where he served for the past five years. Through his advocacy of health tech, David was instrumental in the ideation, creation, and early traction of Nimbus. He also served on the Board of Nimbus’ parent organization, Discovery Parks, for more than two decades. David remains committed to Nimbus’ continued success and is joining the Board of Nimbus investee HeadCheck Health, where he will support the company’s vision of protecting athletes from mismanaged head injuries. In addition, David remains the CEO of Notch Therapeutics Inc., a rapidly growing venture-backed biotechnology company.

“David’s impact and contributions to our organization over the decades cannot be overemphasized – he has been a dedicated steward of Discovery Parks’ mission to see technology become the most economically important sector in British Columbia,” reflected Paul Geyer. “We look forward to working closely with David in his new capacity and wish him the greatest success and fulfillment in his future endeavours.”

ABOUT NIMBUS SYNERGIES

Nimbus Synergies leads early-stage financings in innovative and complementary health technology companies in Canada. By bringing these companies together to share resources, industry specific knowledge, and relationships, Nimbus is accelerating their growth and increasing their likelihood of success. Nimbus is significantly impacting the health technology sector through its leadership as investor, partner, and mentor.

 

Follow Nimbus Synergies on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/nimbus-synergies) and Twitter @nimbussynergies