nanoMR Announces $13 Million Series B Financing
Proceeds to support commercialization of Pathogen Capture System for rapid
identification of bloodstream infections
nanoMR, Inc., today announced that the company has raised $13 million in equity financing. Excel Venture Management led the round, joined by Healthcare Ventures, and existing investors vSpring Capital, The Dow Chemical Company, and Sun Mountain Capital. Dr. Steven Gullans of Excel and Gus Lawlor of Healthcare Ventures will join the board. The financing will enable nanoMR to develop commercial instruments for the clinical microbiology market, perform clinical studies and prepare for product launch.
“We are extremely excited to partner with Excel and Healthcare Ventures to advance our development of diagnostic products for the clinical microbiology market,” said Victor Esch, nanoMR’s CEO. “Our new investors have great expertise in helping to transform new technology advances into leading edge health care companies.”
The inability to isolate pathogens directly from blood has been for many years the key issue hindering early, appropriate treatment of bloodstream infections - to prevent sepsis - and nanoMR has solved this problem. The company’s immunomagnetic technology rapidly isolates pathogens directly from blood in under 30 minutes, enabling identification of infectious organisms using existing molecular diagnostic devices in under two hours. The current time-frame, based on blood culture, takes at least 48 hours. Delay in detection and treatment of bloodstream infections causes more than 250,000 deaths each year in the USA and costs the average hospitalover $7.7 million annually.
About nanoMR Inc.
nanoMR is an early stage life sciences company developing novel diagnostic systems for rapid and sensitive identification of pathogens in whole blood and other samples. nanoMR’s system couples immunochemistry with analytical methods such as PCR or DNA hybridization to identify bacterial
and fungal infections at clinically-relevant levels.
Bio Legislative Day Fly-In 2011
NMBio President Andrew Salazar meets with Senator Tom Udall (NM) and Miguel Suazo (BIO)
Senior Scientific Bought by Manhattan Scientifics
Regular participants to New Mexico BIO have undoubtedly met long time member Dr. Edward Flynn, founder of Senior Scientific and Chief Scientist. Senior Scientific (SST) has been a member of New Mexico BIO for many years. On June 7th of this year Manhattan Scientifics (OTCBB: MHTX) announced the acquisition of SST, LLC and its affiliate Scientific Nanomedicine Inc.
Senior Scientific focused on innovative nanotechnology to detect breast, prostate, pancreatic, brain, and other cancers years earlier than current diagnostic techniques. Based on magnetic nano particles infused with antibodies that bind with cancer cells, the technology pinpoints the exact location, classification and rate of growth of cancers. The non-radiation technology is capable of recognizing as few as several thousand-cancer cells whereas mammograms currently in use require 100 million cancer cells in order to identify a tumor. The system can be used for both diagnostics and targeted therapies.
The infusion of capital will allow SST to accelerate the development of it's technology from the laboratory to a clinical environment working cooperatively with the major cancer research centers in the U.S. "This is truly an exciting time." Edward R. Flynn, PhD, said, "I will continue to play a major role in developing this technology towards experimental and clinical applications. The past grants I received from the National Institutes of Health helped take the technology from concept to a working prototype. Now with the major commercializing role of Manhattan Scientifics, we can rapidly advance the technology from the laboratory to a clinical environment working cooperatively with the major cancer research centers in the U.S. This is truly an exciting time."
Marvin Maslow, Founder & Chairman Emeritus of Manhattan Scientifics, said, "The Senior Scientific technology is stunning and the enthusiastic acceptance of it for experimental clinical work by America's most important cancer hospitals and cancer research centers is equally stunning. Our team leaders and collaborators, Dr. Richard Larson, V. Gerald Grafe and Spencer Falk have shown great determination to accelerate the commercialization process." Dr. Larson Vice President of Translational Research at University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center is a long standing Board Member of New Mexico BIO.
Submitted by Shannon Sheehan, Ph.D., M.B.A.
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Our NMBio January program (January 10, 11:30-1:00 PM) presented the topic "Research and Development Tax Credits (R&D)" to give you the latest information on opportunities in R&D for biotech companies. If you missed it, slides are available. Contact admin@nmbio.org for your copy.
