Introducing one of the EIC Scaling Club Cardiovascular Therapies group members – Anaconda Biomed, a Barcelona-based scale-up revolutionizing stroke treatment with its cutting-edge technology. Their mission statement is ambitious yet simple: to provide the best thrombectomy system to health care professionals. And since its foundation, Anaconda Biomed has been on track to accomplish just that. 

Listen to the interview with Anaconda Biomed here:

A mission to combat stroke

As Dr. Ofir Arad, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Anaconda Biomed, notes, stroke is the number one cause of permanent disability in the world. The company has set out to change this statistic by offering a more effective treatment. Arad explains: “We are dedicated to treating acute ischemic stroke, which is caused by a clot blocking the main cerebral artery. The clot is always as big as the artery, while the catheters intended to retrieve the clot are always smaller.” 

This is where Anaconda Biomed intends to make a difference with its innovative catheter technology – and the company's name is no coincidence. Arad says:

“As an anaconda that’s able to swallow prey bigger than itself, our catheter can extract clots bigger than itself.” 

Hendrik Lambert, Chief Medical Officer at Anaconda Biomed, explains further: “The product itself is very simple. It’s brought into the body through a commercial catheter. Once we’re ready to grab the clot, the catheter is slightly pulled away, its mouth opens, and the clot fits nicely into it. When the clot is inside the catheter, the physician pulls it down, extracting the clot from the body.” 

Advancing stroke care through expertise

Anaconda Biomed was founded in 2015 and has raised significant capital to advance its research. In 2017, the company raised 15 million EUR in Series A, followed by 20 million EUR in Series B in 2019. The scale-up also obtained a 10 million EUR loan from the European Investment Bank. 

Currently, the company employs 23 specialists, and, as Arad notes, the management team of Anaconda Biomed has more than 130 years of total experience in the field. The company was founded by Arad, who has a cardiovascular field background, and Dr. Marc Ribó – a neurologist at Hospital Vall d’Hebron in Barcelona. Together, they teamed up to solve the problem with the neurovascular device.

Anaconda Biomed’s future looks bright. The scale-up is already preparing for the next funding round, hoping to raise 25 million EUR in Series C. Recently, the company got approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct a pivotal randomized study in the US and Europe. 

Clinical success and future goals

The recent approval for the study is a major success point because, as Lambert notes, getting clinical data to satisfy FDA and other requirements is among the company's main challenges. “The regulatory demands are increasing everywhere – mainly in Europe, but also in the US. We are now conducting a randomized clinical study of over 300 patients. The recruitment goes well, but such a study is indeed a very expensive one for a company of our size,” he says. 

Anaconda Biomed’s first clinical trial, SOLONDA, validated the potential of its first-generation product. Subsequent iterations have delivered even more impressive results.

“With the current product generation, we almost double the likelihood of success for patients when we take the clot out of the brain,” says Lambert. 

Collaboration for growth

As a member of the EIC Scaling Club, Anaconda Biomed hopes to benefit from access to a network of investors and industry leaders. “It’s an honor to be selected among so many candidates,” says Lambert, with Arad adding: “We are excited to meet potential lead investors for our Series C and collaborate with other innovators in this space.”

Looking ahead, Anaconda Biomed is already developing its next-generation thrombectomy system to further improve its effectiveness and safety. Lambert says: “It’s really not so simple to bring technology into the brain. Our tech shows that it can be safe and very effective at the same time.” However, the scale-up always strives for more. 

With its innovative approach, seasoned leadership, and commitment to improving patient outcomes, Anaconda Biomed is poised to make a lasting impact in the fight against stroke.

See the full interview with Ofir Arad and Hendrik Lambert in the video below, or visit our YouTube channel (and enjoy our other videos while you're there!).

About the EIC Scaling Club

The EIC Scaling Club is a curated community where 120+ European deep tech scale-ups with the potential to build world-class businesses and solve major global challenges come together with investors, corporate innovators and other industry stakeholders to spur growth.

The top 120+ European deep tech companies will be carefully selected from a pool of high-growth scale-ups that have benefitted from EIC financial schemes, other European and national innovation programmes, and beyond.

The EIC Scaling Club is an EIC-funded initiative run in partnership by Tech Tour, Bpifrance (EuroQuity), Hello Tomorrow, Tech.eu (Webrazzi), EurA and IESE Business School.

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