Spinelab AG, a privately held company, specialized in developing motion preserving stabilization systems for the spine, announced today that it has raised Swiss francs 4.7 million in a Series C financing round. Lead investors are BioMedInvest and VI Partners. Spinelab has raised Swiss francs 20 million since its first venture round end of 2006.

"Spinelab has rigorously documented the clinical performance of its flagship product, the motion preservation system Elaspine™, over the last three years. This new funds will allow Spinelab to initiate commercial activities in Europe and to complete the development of its second core product", said Thomas Zehnder, President & CEO of Spinelab.

Gerard Moufflet, Chairman of Spinelab added: "With a strong database of over 100 documented clinical cases with Elaspine™ in Europe, Spinelab is poised to demonstrate the superior clinical benefits and to position Elaspine™ as a leading device in this field."

About Spinelab
Spinelab's core product Elaspine™ is a pedicle screw based posterior motion preservation system for thoracolumbar spine. The key element is an elastic polymer rod with a patented form-fit connection to a mono-axial pedicle screw head. The system makes use of the viscoelastic material properties of the polymer rod and acts similarly to a damper.

About BioMedInvest
BioMedInvest AG I is a healthcare-dedicated venture capital fund based in Switzerland, providing private equity financing to early- to mid-stage companies in Switzerland and neighbouring regions (Alpine Rim). BioMedInvest currently invests out of Fund II, which has a size of CHF 106 million and was closed in 2009.

About VI Partners
VI Partners is a Swiss venture capital firm currently managing the CHF 101 million Venture Incubator fund. Since 2002, VI Partners has invested in more than 30 technology-based companies many of them being highly promising spin-offs out of Swiss academic institutions.