MIAMI, May 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Rapha Capital Management, LLC (https://www.raphacap.com), an investment management firm located in Miami, Florida, through Rapha Capital Investment IX, LLC (“RCI IX”) (an entity managed by Rapha Capital), led FIZE Medical Inc.’s (“FIZE”)(www.fizemedical.com) recently closed Series A financing. RCI IX was joined by MIG FZ LLC, incorporated by a group of pharmaceutical and biotechnology executives and investors, led by Michael Ingber MD, Director of The Center for Specialized Women’s Health at Garden State Urology, within Atlantic Health System. The $2 million financing will be used to further develop and launch FIZE’s novel device, the first accurate, automatic, digital, and cost-effective device to measure urine output in real time, replacing the current, manually managed, urinometer bag attached to a standard Foley catheter, to be made available to hospitals and physicians worldwide. With the close of Series A, Kevin Slawin, founder and managing partner of Rapha Capital Management, joined the board of FIZE, and Michael Ingber, MD, joined as a board observer.
The COVID 19 pandemic has created a healthcare crisis that now prioritizes technologies that increase protection to healthcare workers from infection, improves the care of critically ill patients in an ICU environment, and provides overall efficiencies to the delivery of healthcare. The FIZE device addresses all of these goals by reducing the number of times a nurse/healthcare worker needs to enter the room of an infected patient by automating the measurement of urine output necessary to manage critical ill patients without manually emptying the Foley catheter urinometer bag every hour. In addition to the advantages related to patient care and healthcare workers, the device reduces the workload of healthcare workers and allows hospitals to provide safer, more effective and efficient care.
Rapha Capital is an investment management firm focused on making strategic investments in early stage, non-public biotechnology companies, through special purpose joint venture entities which it manages. Rapha Capital was founded by its President, Kevin Slawin, M.D., a successful and experienced oncologic and robotic surgeon. After leaving practice, Dr. Slawin has been serving as a biotech consultant, investor, and founder, focusing on disruptive technologies in oncology, T cells and immunotherapy, and other breakthrough healthcare technologies. He is the founder of Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Bellicum”), a publicly traded company listed on NASDAQ, leading Bellicum to a successful $161 million IPO in December, 2014. He also plays a guiding role in several of the investments managed by Rapha Capital in certain companies, serving as interim CEO and a board member at AsclepiX Therapeutics, Inc. (http://www.asclepix.com/) and a board member at 3DBio Therapeutics, Inc. (https://3dbiocorp.com/).
“The goal of developing an accurate, automatic, digital, and cost-effective replacement for Foley catheter drainage is not a new one. However, designing a product that meets these goals without increasing the costs associated with current urinometer gravity bag drainage has eluded the medical device industry until now,” said Kevin Slawin MD. “FIZE Medical was founded by Noam Levine, who has spent his life designing measurement systems for aerodynamics and fluid flow. He was an inventor of the world’s first computerized digital anemometer, which is a device to measure airflow. So, it’s not surprising that FIZE Medical solved the technical challenges in measuring real time urine flow in an accurate, cost effective, digital format. FIZE’s methods are unlike any of its competitors, providing a unique platform to build a suite of assays upon this core technology advance. As Urologists who understand the need better than most, Dr. Ingber and I, along with many of the best Urologists in our specialty, are excited to partner with FIZE to make this groundbreaking technology widely available to patients,” he added.
About Rapha Capital Management, LLC
Rapha Capital Management, LLC is an investment management firm located in Miami, Florida, focusing on strategic investments in early stage, non-public biotechnology companies. Rapha Capital was founded by its President, Kevin Slawin, MD, a successful and experienced oncologic and robotic surgeon, biotech consultant, investor, and founder focusing on technologies in oncology, T cells and immunotherapy, as well as other breakthrough healthcare technologies. He is the founder of Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLCM). He is co-Inventor of the FDA,-approved “prostate health index (phi)” test licensed and marketed by Beckman Coulter and utilized around the world. He has published extensively in top medical and scientific journals including the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI), and the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). He has also been routinely listed in America’s Top Doctors for Cancer (Castle Connolly Medical) and The Best Doctors in America (Woodward/White). In 2003, he was awarded the F. Brantley Scott, Jr., Award for Innovation and Creativity in Urology.
About FIZE Medical
FIZE – “Making Every Drop Count” – FIZE Medical is developing a state-of-the-art platform of assays to measure key indicators of the health status of patients found in their urine, in real time, delivered through FIZE’s groundbreaking device. The basic FIZE device measures real time urine output more accurately than the current manually operated standard urinometer bag. Fully automated and integrated into current healthcare IT platforms like the eMR, FIZE technology is poised to advance significantly the delivery of healthcare without the added burden of increasing cost. FIZE Medical is headquartered in Modi’in, Israel. For more information, visit www.fizemedical.com or email [email protected].
