Levee Medical, a Durham, North Carolina-based medical device company, announced on September 15, 2026 that it was awarded an NIH SBIR Phase II grant worth approximately $2 million from the National Cancer Institute to advance research supporting its Voro® Urologic Scaffold. Founder and CTO Bruce Choi said: “We are deeply grateful to NCI and NIH for their support and for the collaborative role federal agencies play in helping promising medical technologies move forward. Urinary incontinence after prostatectomy can profoundly affect a man’s quality of life, and there remains significant opportunity to improve recovery outcomes for these patients.”
Targeting a Common Complication of Prostate Cancer Surgery
The Voro Urologic Scaffold, the first product Levee Medical plans to bring to market, is designed to address post-prostatectomy stress urinary incontinence, a complication that can affect quality of life following robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer. The device remains limited to investigational use and is not yet approved for commercial use in the United States or any other country. Choi tied the new funding directly to getting it there: “This award allows us to broaden our clinical partnerships and continue developing Voro for the men and families affected by this complication.”
Non-Dilutive Funding to Follow Up a Completed Pivotal Trial
The roughly $2 million grant (No. 1R44CA314945-01), effective August 1, 2026, provides non-dilutive funding over two years for clinical data collection, investigator training, design control activities, and continued device development. It follows the completion of patient enrollment in ARID II, a multicenter, randomized pivotal trial evaluating Voro’s safety and effectiveness in men undergoing robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy; the release doesn’t disclose enrollment numbers or specific trial endpoints. Mohummad Minhaj Siddiqui, MD, FACS, Professor and Chief of Urology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, offered an outside read on the program: “Levee Medical has approached the development and clinical evaluation of the Voro with care and discipline, both in its management of the trial and its engagement with participating investigators. This grant creates an opportunity to deepen the evaluation of a novel device and build on the progress already underway. I am encouraged by the company’s thoughtful and responsible approach to the program.”
About Levee Medical
Levee Medical is dedicated to advancing solutions that aim to reduce complications associated with surgical treatment for prostate cancer. The Voro Urologic Scaffold is the first product Levee Medical plans to bring to market. This device is limited to investigational use and is not approved for commercial use in the United States or any other country.
