It’s unusual for a company to have the same vision it had when it was founded eight years ago, but that is the case for Ikonisys (New Haven, Connecticut), according to President/CFO Paul White.

“We saw the potential for developing a technology platform that is completely different than how manual microscopy is done,” White told Medical Device Daily. “We developed what is now an extremely robust, sophisticated technology platform. Now we want to harness that platform and put more tests on it.”

And that is exactly what Ikonisys plans to do with the $30 million it raised in Series E financing, which the company reported yesterday. Prior to this recent round of financing, the company had raised a total of $37.5 million.

New investor Goldman, Sachs joined existing investors Trevi Health Ventures, Palisade Capital, Everfin, Lakeview Capital Management, New Science Ventures, Promark Holdings SA, Saint Simeon — e Investimentos and WHI Group.

“Ultimately we all see the promise — all of our stakeholders – the promise of the platform we have,” White said.

Ikonisys has developed two product lines — oncoFISH for cancer diagnostics and monitoring and fastFISH for the prenatal detection of genetic disorders — that are designed to run on the company’s Ikoniscope robotic digital microscopy platform.

The financing follows FDA clearance and market launch of two diagnostic applications developed for use in conjunction with the company’s Ikoniscope digital microscopy platform, the company said.

In January, Ikonisys reported FDA clearance of its oncoFISH bladder cancer test (Medical Device Daily, Jan. 26, 2007), which is designed to enable automated testing of cells found in urine specimens to aid in the detection of bladder cancer. With oncoFISH, technicians only have to prepare slides in the way that they normally do, but they are not required to review them manually. Instead, technicians load the slides into the Ikoniscope, which scans the slides, digitizes the images and performs analysis on the images using the application. The lab technician then reviews the results and issues the report.

The company received its first test application clearance in September 2006 when the FDA cleared the fastFISH auto-amniocyte application, providing automated identification and enumeration of chromosomes 13, 18, 21 X and Y in amniotic fluid in pregnant women, to detect any aberrations associated with common birth defects, such as Down syndrome (MDD, Sept. 29, 2006).

According to the company, the Ikoniscope is the only fully automated microscopy platform that provides true walk-away functionality, allowing scanning and preliminary analysis of slide samples to take place in real-time. This platform supports the automation of existing tests as well as the company’s advanced rare cell detection tests, which are designed to provide non-invasive yet highly accurate alternatives to both existing invasive, high-accuracy diagnostic tests and less-accurate, non-invasive tests.

White said Ikonisys plans to release the first two of its rare cell-detection tests in 2008. These tests are designed to provide a non-invasive method for the prenatal detection of chromosome abnormalities in the fetus and early detection of cancer.

In connection with the proposed $3.67 billion merger between eye health company Bausch & Lomb (B&L; Rochester, New York) and affiliates of Warburg Pincus, WP Prism Merger Subreported an agreement to sell $650 million principal amount of 9.875% notes due 2015.

Merger Sub was formed by investment funds associated with Warburg Pincus for the purpose of the merger.

As a result of the merger, investment funds associated with or designated by Warburg Pincus and certain co-investors will own B&L.

Merger Sub will use the net proceeds from the offering of the notes, together with the expected proceeds from a new $1.2 billion senior secured U.S. term loan facility and a new Euro-denominated term loan facility in an amount equal to about $575 million, equity financing and cash on hand of B&L to close the merger. The offering of the notes and the merger are expected to close around Oct. 26.