Maternity Medicine Recently closed the largest funding round ever in the women’s Ob-Gyn medical device space. The Mountain View, California-based company was founded in 2010, improve $22 million in Series B financing led by private equity firm InnovaHealth Partners. This round brings its total Funding to date over $35 million.
The funding will help Materna increase nationwide use of its pelvic health devices, which are sold directly to women and offered through vendor referrals.
Materna launched its first product, a dilating vaginal dilator called The country’s, in 2019.The dilator gained from Food and Drug Administration Dec. Treats symptoms of vaginismus and dyspareunia. Vaginismus is the involuntary tension and contraction of the vaginal muscles when trying to penetrate, while dyspareunia is the associated pelvic pain that occurs during intercourse and tampon insertion.
Materna’s chief executive Tracy MacNeal called vaginismus “a misunderstood and underdiagnosed disorder.” One of the biggest challenges surrounding this condition is that neither patients nor clinicians have heard of it.
She said millions of women experience pain and anxiety during penetration without knowing they can get treatment. The most common reason patients have vaginismus is that they already have a primary disease that causes chronic pelvic pain. Common conditions that cause secondary vaginismus include menopause, cancer treatment, sexual assault, and childbirth injuries.
There is also widespread misconception and misinformation about vaginism among medical professionals, according to McNeill.
“Sadly, there isn’t a lot of teaching about vaginismus in medical school,” she said. “This lack of information means that patients often have the disease for five years or more and see some clinicians who don’t know how to diagnose or treat it.”
Milli launched as a consumer health product for $395. In addition to direct-to-consumer sales, Materna uses healthcare professional referrals to sell the device, MacNeal said. Since its launch, Milli has been used by more than 130 clinical practices and 3,000 patients.
McNeil claims that the Milli is the only expansion expander on the market.
“The old standard of care for vaginismus was invented in the 1800s,” she said. “Amel and General medical are the only two dilators approved by the FDA for the treatment of vaginismus. However, they do not offer the same incremental size and ability to expand within the anatomy at the patient’s discretion. “
Materna’s second installation, Maternity Preparation, is currently being tested in a clinical trial to see if it can help nulliparous women reduce pelvic muscle damage and shorten labor during labor.The device is with Stanford Biodesign Plan for and focus on the clinical unmet need for pelvic floor tears and injuries.
“90 percent of moms experience perineal tears during labor — sometimes these are minor injuries, sometimes they’re life-changing, leading to permanent disfigurement, sexual dysfunction, and long-term incontinence,” McNeill said. “In addition, injuries to the pelvic floor muscles themselves are common, with up to 30 percent of childbirth injuries associated with muscle damage.”
In Prep’s pilot study, Materna found the device reduced pelvic floor damage by 60 percent, according to MacNeal.She said the encouraging findings are why the company conduct larger research 15 large health systems are involved, including Michigan Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital.
Materna will use the funding it raised in the Series B round to help expand its ongoing clinical studies, expand the reach of its device and prepare for Prep’s market entry.This funding round, raised by MacNeal, is a bright spot for femtech – funds raised by female founders Only 2% of all VC funding 2021.
Image credit: Maternal Medicine
