Hospitals

Company developing MRSA test raises $1.9 million

An infectious disease test developer has raised $1.9 million in a series B financing round […]

    An infectious disease test developer has raised $1.9 million in a series B financing round to advance its MRSA screening panel. It will also use the funds to develop its new molecular diagnostic panels to detect sepsis and gastrointestinal infections in hospitalized patients.

    Molecular Detection’s Detect Ready MRSA screening panel is currently marketed in Europe, according to a company statement. It is in the process of moving its MRSA through a 510(k) trial in the U.S. market. MRSA is a type of staph infection that is resistant to most commonly used antibiotics.

    The MRSA screening test is designed to identify MRSA carriers — an estimated 5 percent to 15 percent of the population and a much larger number of people than those with active MRSA infections, an emailed statement from the company said. By doing the test at the time of hospital admission, the goal is to manage carriers in a way that minimizes the chances they will become sources of MRSA infection within the hospital.

    In 2005, 90,000 people were diagnosed in the U.S. with severe MRSA infection and 19,000 people died of severe MRSA in the United states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but it has been on the decline as a result of screening programs and infection control implemented by U.S. hospitals.

    In 2010, a CDC study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that invasive (life-threatening) MRSA infections in healthcare settings fell 28 percent from 2005 through 2008, according to an email from MDI. A National Healthcare Safety Network study found rates of MRSA bloodstream infections occurring in hospitalized patients fell by nearly 50 percent in a 10-year period that ended in 2007, a finding public health authorities attributed to the establishment of MRSA-screening and infection-control programs in hospitals.

    The Wayne, Pennsylvania-based company received the funding from existing investors that includes MentorTech Ventures, Robin Hood Ventures, Elm Spring Holdings and the Mid-Atlantic Angel Group. It has raised $10 million to date, which includes a $1.5 million funding round announced by MDI earlier this year, according to an emailed statement.

    MDI plans to launch the sepsis and GI panels in the European Union later this year.

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