First patient treated in SPHERE PerAF trial

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Affera has announced that the first patient was treated in the recently approved SPHERE PerAF trial, a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) pivotal randomised trial, to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the Affera system and Sphere-9 catheter for the treatment of persistent atrial fibrillation (AF).

The company also announced that it closed a US$75M series C financing that will support the trial and continued development of Affera’s platform.

The Affera system includes the Sphere-9 catheter and integrated Prism-1 mapping system to enable the rapid creation of detailed maps, as well as the versatile HexaGEN ablation system to deliver either pulsed field or radiofrequency lesion sets in a variety of substrates. Designed to optimise procedural efficiency and efficacy across a broad range of cardiac arrhythmias, the Affera platform has been used to treat over 300 patients.

The first patient was treated at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital by Vivek Reddy, who commented:  “SPHERE Per-AF introduces focal pulsed field ablation and is the first randomised catheter ablation IDE trial to treat persistent atrial fibrillation. The trial is comparing a conventional radiofrequency ablation catheter to the Sphere-9 catheter which is capable of delivering energy with a larger ablative footprint to facilitate lesion overlap and procedural efficiency. This capability has translated to promising clinical outcome data in the initial European trials. It was encouraging that, just as in the initial European trials, this first procedure was performed efficiently and successfully.”

Additionally, the company announced it closed an oversubscribed US$75M series C financing. The financing round adds Bain Capital Life Sciences and strategic investors to the slate of existing investors, who also participated in the round.

“With its robust platform, clinical evidence, and product pipeline, Affera stands out in the rapidly growing electrophysiology segment,” stated Jeffrey Schwartz, managing director at Bain Capital Life Sciences. “The company is building best in class clinical options for electrophysiologists and patients, positioning it to become a significant platform for the treatment of AF. We are pleased to join this round and look forward to advancing this much needed treatment option for the estimated 37 million people worldwide that live with this condition.”

“We are thrilled to commence the IDE trial and validate our Sphere-9 catheter, Prism-1 mapping system and HexaGEN ablation platform in a randomised multicentre trial. We welcome our new investors and believe the round further validates the significant potential of our platform to address critical unmet needs within electrophysiology,” commented Doron Harlev, CEO and founder of Affera. “The financing will enable us to execute the IDE trial, continue our development and clinical programmes, scale manufacturing and operations and build strong momentum moving forward.”


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