Biop Medical has announced a Series A financing round of $2.25 million, which will be used to move forward with the development of its point-of-care diagnostic tools for the accurate detection of epithelium cancers, with a primary focus on cervical cancer.
The first application the Israel-based company is working on involves an alternative to biopsies. Biop will be looking to use the funding for continuing product development and ongoing clinical trails of the company’s prototype device that will take place at Semmelweis University Hospital in Budapest, Hungary and in Rabin Medical Center in Israel.
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
Product design should be finalized by the end of the year.
On average, for cervical cancer screening, a woman might need multiple biopsies and they then need to wait for results – a stressful process. Biop’s technology reportedly provides a diagnosis in just minutes.
A press release sent out today stated how the technology works:
Biop’s point-of-care technology combines advanced, high-resolution optics with integrated micro and macro cameras and other optical elements. The device is inserted into the vaginal canal until it is in contact with the cervix and projects a full array of coherent and non-coherent lights into the full depth of cervix. The received refractions emitted by the cervical tissue indicate where cancer and pre-cancer cells are located.
This data can automatically identify and map suspicious areas, and quantify the cancer’s advancement. The results are automatically uploaded to the cloud and are stored in patients’ electronic health records with big data analytics helping doctors predict which lesions will progress into cancer. Doctors can pinpoint where to perform biopsies by targeting the precise location of suspicious areas.
The company plans for this to not only be helpful in the Western world but a potential life savior in developing countries because of it’s immediacy with results.
The cancer diagnostics market is becoming more and more widespread globally. Some of the major players in the global cancer diagnostics market include Agilent Technologies, Inc. (U.S.), Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (U.S.), Illumina, Inc. (Denmark), Becton, Dickinson and Company (U.S.), GE Healthcare (U.K.), QIAGEN N.V. (Netherlands), Abbott Laboratories, Inc. (U.S.), Roche Diagnostics (Switzerland), Siemens Healthcare (Germany), Philips Healthcare (U.K.) and C.R. Bard, Inc. (U.S.).
Biop is currently jumping into a large and hopefully promising area in healthcare.
Photo: Flickr user Ed Uthman
