SPR Therapeutics Raises $25 Million In Series C Financing

SPR Therapeutics Inc., a medical device company in Highland Hills that has developed a neurostimulation platform for chronic and acute pain, announced on Tuesday morning, Sept. 12, that it has received $25 million in Series C financing.

The round was led by Basking Ridge, N.J.-based Frontcourt Ventures and what SPR Therapeutics called “a prominent family office” that it did not identify. Specific terms of the investment were not disclosed.

SPR Therapeutics said in a news release that the investment will be used to commercialize its FDA-cleared SPRINT Peripheral Nerve Stimulation system “and to fund additional research across multiple indications including post-surgical acute pain and chronic low back pain.”

The SPRINT system offers what SPR Therapeutics calls “a non-narcotic solution for the relief of chronic and acute pain.” It uses a thin wire placed through the skin that connects to a wearable stimulator to activate nerve fibers to provide pain relief without opioids, permanent implants or tissue destruction. In July, SPR Therapeutics was included in this piece in MIT Technology Review about companies leveraging technology to “replace addictive painkillers and help people detox from opioids.”

Maria Bennett, founder, president and CEO of SPR Therapeutics, said in a statement that the funding “will allow us to offer SPRINT, a safe and effective pain-relief therapy, to more pain sufferers.”

She said the nation’s opioid crisis “is personal to us at SPR, as our home state of Ohio has one of the highest drug overdose death rates in the nation.”

SPR Therapeutics said in the release that the $25 million in Series C financing is in addition to prior equity financing of about $10 million. The company also has received “nearly $23 million to date in non-dilutive funding from sources including the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health,” the release stated.

The company also announced it has appointed Nick Valeriani to its board of directors.

Valeriani previously served as the CEO of West Health, a San Diego-based nonprofit medical research organization. Prior to that, he spent 34 years with Johnson & Johnson, serving on its Executive Committee as worldwide chairman of medical devices and diagnostics and as vice president of the Office of Strategy & Growth.

Bennett said Valeriani “is an important addition to the SPR board, as he has deep expertise in successfully commercializing numerous, game-changing therapies.”

This story originally appeared on Crain’s Cleveland Business.