A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Confirma(Bellevue, Washington), a developer of computer-aided detection systems for MRI, reported that it has raised $17.5 million in a Series C round led by Telegraph Hill Partners (San Francisco).

Fluke Venture Partners joined the round along with returning investors Northwest Venture Associates, Prism Ventureworks and Versant Ventures. Dr. Tom Raffin and Jeff Calhoun from Telegraph Hill will join Confirma’s board, as will Denny Weston from Fluke Ventures.

Wayne Wager, president/CEO of Confirma, said, “With this new funding we will move forward aggressively to deliver innovative products to customers and strengthen corporate operations.”

“Confirma has proven to be the leader in CAD for breast MRI with approximately a thousand systems installed throughout the world, assisting healthcare providers to meet the growing demand for breast MRI,” said Dr. Tom Raffin, of Telegraph Hill.

Confirma’s CADstream system automates analysis, reporting and interventional planning of studies and promotes standardization with the incorporation of the Breast Imaging Reporting and Database System (BI-RADS) of the American College of Radiology (Reston, Virginia), which guides the breast cancer diagnostic routine and decision-making process.

Confirma’s next-generation version of CADstream for breast MRI, launched at the 2007 RSNA meeting, includes a customizable BI-RADS-centric interface for a variety of user levels. Additional CADstream enhancements planned for future release include improved 3D renderings and tools for morphology reporting.

The company also has developed a CADstream for prostate designed to provide workflow-enhancing tools for prostate MRI analysis and reporting. The system, in development, includes image registration, alignment between contrast series and T2 images, and uptake and washout maps. The system also automatically creates multiplanar reformats, subtractions, MIPs and prostate-specific reports.

Telegraph Hill Partners is a private equity investment firm specializing in life science medical device and healthcare businesses. The firm targets investments in private companies that demonstrate strong financial performance and innovative products or services.

In other financing activity:

• Tethys Bioscience (Emeryville, California) reported reaching two milestones in its drive to release Tethys Diabetes PreDx, a multi-biomarker technology intended to provide a more complete picture of an individual’s future risk of developing diabetes.

The company received its latest round of funding, Series C, and also received the licensing of its CLIA lab by the state of California.

According to the company, both moves place Tethys in a strong position to establish itself in the emerging field of personalized predictive medicine and to achieve its goal of helping to stem the burgeoning epidemic of chronic, high-burden metabolic disease. Tethys Diabetes PreDx will be generally available in the first half of 2009, Tethys said.

Intel Capital led the new round of funding.

Tethys said it has raised $54 million in financing to date.

The company also said the licensing of its clinical lab marks a “significant step forward,” enabling Tethys to make its testing services available for sale and to offer test results obtained in Tethys’ own laboratory, where the technology was developed.

• Nymox Pharmaceutical (Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey), said it has secured a commitment for $15 million in equity financing from institutional investors. The money will be used for general corporate purposes, the company said.

The financing gives Nymox the right to place common stock to the investors at a 3% discount to the market price of its stock. There are no warrants, price resets, and no restrictions on other corporate financing, the company noted.

Nymox is a biotech engaged in the R&D of therapeutics and diagnostics, with an emphasis on products for the aging population.