PhageTech, Inc. announced today that it has raised $2.4 million in Series A funding that will be used to complete development of its Biosensors – which are designed to enable early detection of cancers and other diseases.
The technology would make disease detection easier, less expensive and practically instantaneous with a one-minute blood or urine test. The funding is led by Mark IV Capital and Black River Investments.
According to a PhageTech representative, the money will be used directly toward furthering development of the technology throughout the rest of the year. Then, at that point, the company plans to be ready to submit for FDA clearance sometime next year. After going through the 510(k) clearance, the technology could be approved 3 to 6 months after submission.
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CEO Richard Henson state in a press release:
“Our technology enables an entire new category of near patient testing with tremendous benefits in portability, simplicity, time to result and cost over the current standard in lab-based diagnostics (e.g. sending samples out to a lab and waiting for results). The entire diagnostic test is contained in a chip the size of a postage stamp without compromising accuracy, enabling physicians to make instant treatment decisions. Our vision is to develop PhageTech Biosensors and readers for physicians as well as patients (e.g. through an app on a cell phone). It will especially have enormous implications for developing countries with minimal resources who are in need of simple, low cost, near patient testing. Our goal in 10 years is to touch over one billion people.”
The technology was developed with NIH funds at the University of California, Irvine. This is the first round of investor-driven funding for PhageTech.
Photo: Flickr user Pictures of Money
