Elipse Balloon from Allurion Technologies

Boston-based Allurion Technologies has raised $27 million in Series C funding to commercialize its intragastric balloon device. Contributors included current investor Romulus Capital, along with Cogepa Investments and IDO Investments.

“The funding will support our FDA pivotal study, which will start next year; build the sales and marketing team to increase sales outside the U.S. and improve manufacturing,” said chief scientific officer Shantanu Gaur in a phone interview. “We have enough demand that we are investing a lot of time and energy to scale our manufacturing process, which is a great problem to have.”

The company was founded in 2009 by Gaur and company president Samuel Levy in response to the worldwide obesity epidemic. The two were second-year Harvard medical students when a nutrition class showed them the large gap in the obesity market.

“If we could deliver a product that was more effective than diet and exercise and less invasive, less costly and less permanent than weight loss surgery, we could have a very disruptive product in a very large market,” said Gaur.

The two were fascinated by gastric balloons, which occupy stomach space to increase satiety. The literature told them the technology could be effective, but existing products were only helping thousands of people, while the obesity epidemic may affect as many as 2 billion.

The barrier, as they saw it, was the associated procedures. Existing devices had to be implanted and removed endoscopically, requiring sedation or general anesthesia. The process was expensive, invasive and relied on specialists to perform the procedure.

“These products were never going to scale,” said Gaur. “They needed to be delivered in a variety of healthcare settings and be more affordable.”

Their solution is the Elipse Balloon, which is encased in a capsule and swallowed. A narrow catheter fills the balloon with fluid. Patients receive monthly follow-ups to help them adjust their lifestyles, as well as a Bluetooth scale and tracking app. After four months, the valve degrades, and the empty balloon is excreted.

The swallowable balloon eliminates the need for endoscopy and anesthesia, reducing costs for patients – who are generally paying out of pocket. Because the device is designed for people with body mass indexes at 27 or above – compared to 35 or above for traditional weight loss surgery – it could potentially help a much larger population.

The Elipse received the European CE mark in late 2015, is currently available in nine countries in the Europe and Middle East and has been used with 2,000 patients.

“Data suggests people will lose about 14 percent of their body weight,” said Gaur. “That equates to 33 pounds over a four month period.”

The verdict is still out on how well people keep the pounds/kilos off. A small study in Greece showed patients regained about half the weight after eight months. However, Gaur points out that this group received no counseling after the balloon deflated.

“We are developing data that indicates that even if you have just one touch point per month after the balloon has left the body, that’s enough to cause a significant increase in weight maintenance,” said Gaur. “We don’t have a magic solution for obesity, but we do have something that’s safe and effective enough for people to use in a variety of ways.”