A Medical Device Daily
Diagnoplex (Lausanne, Switzerland), a developer of molecular cancer diagnostics, reported the closing of a Series A financing raising CHF 10 million ($8.3 million). The "A" round was led by Novartis Venture Fund and NeoMed, with Initiative Capital Romandie acting as co-investor. The Novartis Venture Fund was also a seed investor in the company.
BCCC Avocats served as counsel to the investors and BMP Associates as counsel to the company.
Diagnoplex develops blood-based cancer diagnostics. The company said its single-channel quantitative multiplex reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (scqmRT-PCR) yields the quantification of copy number obtained with real-time PCR, and allows quantifying up to 60 genes simultaneously.
The scqmRT-PCR platform offers several important competitive advantages, the company noted. It pairs the high accuracy and reliability of PCR with the possibility to read out multi-gene signatures of different cancers. As opposed to microarray platforms, it is easily scalable and can be run in most standard testing laboratories, Diagnoplex said.
Stavros Therianos, PhD, founder/CEO of Diagnoplex, developed the platform during his tenure at Rochester University (Rochester, New York).
Diagnoplex said it would use the proceeds from the financing to support the further clinical development of its lead product Colox, a non-invasive test for the early detection of colon cancer, which will be made available as a ready-to-use clinical laboratory kit.
Early results obtained in a training set of 140 patients have shown that the power of the molecular platform allows Colox to detect even the pre-cancerous stage of adenoma. Early detection and intervention by colonoscopy can have an important impact on the epidemiology of colon cancer, one of the main causes of cancer related mortality in the western world. It is estimated that survival rates improve to 90% when colorectal cancer is detected early, the company noted.
"We are excited to welcome a high quality group of investors and look forward to working with this outstanding syndicate to bring powerful new cancer screening approaches to bear on the early detection of cancer," Therianos said.
In other financing activity:
• Providence Service Corp. (Tucson, Arizona) said its board has adopted a shareholder rights plan under which all of its shareholders will receive rights to buy shares of the company's Series A junior participating preferred stock.
"In this period of unprecedented market volatility where short-term valuations are not reflective of historical performance or long-term prospects, the board of directors has implemented the rights plan to protect shareholder value and ensure that the interests of all shareholders are served in a fair and equitable manner," said CEO Fletcher McCusker.
In connection with adopting the rights plan, Providence's board declared a dividend distribution of one preferred share purchase right on each outstanding share of its common stock. Each right will entitle shareholders to buy one one-100th of a share of newly-created Series A junior participating preferred stock of the company at an exercise price of $15. The dividend distribution will be payable to shareholders of record as of the close of business on Dec. 22. The dividend distribution will not be taxable to shareholders.
Under the rights plan, if a person becomes the owner of 20% or more of Providence's outstanding common stock, other than pursuant to what the board deems a "qualified offer" or under certain other limited circumstances, each right will entitle its holder to purchase, at the right's exercise price, a number of shares of common stock having a market value of twice the right's exercise price. Rights held by the 20% holder will become void and will not be so exercisable.
If Providence is acquired in a merger or other business combination transaction after a person becomes the owner of 20% or more of the company's common stock, each right will entitle its holder to purchase, at the right's then-current exercise price, a number of the acquiring company's common shares having a market value at that time of twice the right's exercise price.
While the rights plan is effective immediately, the company said it intends to seek ratification of the plan from shareholders within the next 12 months.
Providence provides home and community based social services and non-emergency transportation services management to government sponsored clients under programs such as welfare, juvenile justice, Medicaid and corrections.
• Life Science Intelligence (LSI; Huntington Beach, California) said that another new group of 58 mostly privately held med-tech companies has recently been added to the Emerging Medical Technologies (EMT) database: www.emergingmedicaltechnologies.com.
According to LSI, this latest round of companies is collectively seeking more than $250 million ($0.5 million angel, $55.3 million Series A, $17.5 million Series B, $37.2 million Series C, $140 million undisclosed). Many of the companies also are actively pursuing strategic partnerships and licensing deals with large med-tech companies, LSI noted.
LSI said its EMT database provides medical technology executives and venture capitalists with a searchable online resource allowing them to discover, partner, and capitalize on opportunities in emerging med-tech start-up companies. Most of the companies in the database include executive summaries and presentations.
Start-ups in the EMT database represent many market segments, including: aesthetics, biomaterials, biotechnology, cardiovascular, cell therapy, dental, dermatology, diagnostics, drug delivery, endocrine, gastroenterology, gynecology, imaging, men's health, neurology, oncology, ophthalmology, orthopedics, pain management, patient monitoring, respiratory, spine, surgery, urology, vascular, women's health, and wound management.
• Analogic (Peabody, Massachusetts), a maker of high-precision health and security imaging equipment, has declared a 10-cent cash dividend for its first quarter ended Oct. 31, payable on Dec. 31 to shareholders of record on Dec. 18.