ST. PAUL, Minnesota — Apnex Medical Inc. has raised $14 million in funding for an implantable device that treats sleep apnea, according to a regulatory filing.

The three-year-old company has sold $14.05 million of a $19.05 million offering, which represents at least the second significant fund-raise for Apnex. In 2006, it raised $16.1 million in a series A round.

The company is developing an implantable neurostimulation device that activates muscles in a patient’s upper airway to prevent the tongue from blocking the airway during sleep. The device turns on when a

Apnex's implantable neurostimulatorpatient is asleep and turns off when the patient is awake.

Apnex has no revenues, according to the filing. 

Apnex is a spinout company from Prospex Medical Inc., a device incubator founded in 2005. Another spinout, BridgePoint Medical Inc., recently received European regulatory clearance for a guidewire placement device used to treat patients with completely blocked arteries.

Apnex isn’t the only Minnesota company that’s recently attracted funding and is developing a neurostimulator to treat sleep apnea. Inspire Medical Systems Inc., a Medtronic spinoff, said in June that it had raised $17 million in venture capital to fund clinical trials.

Source :   medcitynews.com