After securing Medicare coverage for its wearable neurostimulator to help people control their hand tremors, Cala Health has raised $50 million to boost its commercial trajectory.
The Silicon Valley-based company’s financing round was co-led by Vertex Group Fund and Nexus NeuroTech Ventures, and joined by Cala’s previous backers at Action Potential, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Lightstone, Lux Capital, GV, OSF Ventures, Ascension Ventures, TriVentures, Reimagined Ventures, Peak6 and Fiscus.
Cala’s kIQ system, worn around the wrist as a smartwatch, senses a patient’s tremor signature and personalizes a stimulation pattern to counteract it, then delivers the energy non-invasively through the skin.
The former Fierce 15 winner’s prescription device has been cleared by the FDA to treat the involuntary hand movements caused by Parkinson’s disease or essential tremor. The company estimates that essential tremor alone affects more than 7 million people in the U.S.—and while there are medications available, they can cause side effects such as fatigue, nausea and depression.
In June, Cala reported that kIQ received a Medicare local coverage determination for beneficiaries diagnosed with essential tremor, as a treatment option after at least two pharmaceutical therapies have been tried or considered, and as an alternative to more invasive procedures, such as deep brain stimulation.
Meanwhile, at the top of this year, CVS Health delivered results from a randomized study that showed adding kIQ to the standard of care improved outcomes over drug therapies alone after one month of use.
“[The new funding round] allows us to broaden patient and physician awareness of this effective and innovative treatment,” Cala CEO Deanna Harshbarger said in a statement. “We are very excited about the strong support from both our legacy and new investors who believe in our vision and first-in-class, on-demand technology to address tremor relief.”
Harshbarger was named chief this past summer, after serving as Cala’s chief product officer. Prior to that, she held roles at Medtronic Diabetes, Boston Scientific Neuromodulation, and Johnson & Johnson.