Selio Medical, the Guinness Enterprise Centre-based MedTech company reducing lung collapse – a dangerous complication caused by lung biopsies, has recently announced that it is embarking on a €5 million Series A fundraising round.
The fundraising round follows the more than €15 million already raised by Selio Medical and will help the company to drive commercialisation in the US following FDA clearance of its first product.
Biopsies are an essential diagnostic procedure for lung cancer patients and in the US, Selio Medical’s primary market, more than 400,000 lung biopsies are conducted each year.
Pneumothorax – a collapsed lung – is the number one complication in the procedure, and the costliest to treat. Occurring in up to 35% of biopsies, it can be life-threatening for patients and incurs more than $750 million in annual costs for medical providers in the US.
“Pneumothorax has been an accepted risk of lung biopsy for decades, but it doesn’t have to be. We have built a patented device that seals the lung before a biopsy is even carried out, rather than reacting to a complication once it has happened,” Colm McGarvey, co-founder and CEO, Selio Medical, said. “That single shift has the potential to make biopsies safer for patients, more efficient for clinicians and more financially sustainable for hospitals.”
Selio Medical developed a novel biodegradable hydrogel sealant to form a pre-biopsy sealing plug, designed to prevent air leaks from the lung when the biopsy is carried out. The sealant is delivered through a single-use, pre-filled syringe and is compatible with existing biopsy equipment.
The patented device, called Pre. B Seal Lung Biopsy Plug System, will be used in patients for the first time in Q4 2026.
The Series A funding round will drive its commercial launch in the US, where the addressable market for the device is more than $450M per annum, and where it already has pre-launch agreements in place with large hospitals in New York.
Selio Medical anticipates annual US sales to reach 100,000 devices by 2031, with expected revenues reaching $30 million.
Central to this is Selio Medical’s manufacturing site: a custom-built clean room in the Guinness Enterprise Centre.
Representing the first of its kind in the Guinness Enterprise Centre, the clean room ensures Selio Medical follows stringent quality and regulatory requirements for manufacture of medical devices. All devices sold in the US will be developed in the Guinness Enterprise Centre.
“At the Guinness Enterprise Centre, we are dedicated to giving start-ups the best chance of success. For Selio Medical, this included building a dedicated clean room as the company’s manufacturing needs evolved,” Clare Meehan, operations manager at Guinness Enterprise Centre, said.
To support its US launch, Selio Medical will hire five people in the next two years in the areas of sales, marketing and operations.
The new hires will be based in Dublin and the US. In addition to its US commercialisation ambitions, the wider team will also help Selio Medical to progress its platform technology development for new indications in other large cancer markets.
Patryk Goron
Ltd
