A Medical Device Daily

Diamics (Novato, California), a privately held company developing products for cancer screening and diagnostics, including cervical cancer, reported that Inverness Medical Innovations (IMI; Waltham, Massachusetts), a maker of rapid diagnostic products for the consumer and professional women’s healthcare markets, has committed to a $6 million staged equity investment in Diamics. IMI has acquired 51% of the company and assumed a seat on Diamics’ three-person Board.

“We are delighted that Inverness has acknowledged the progress of the company and the value of our novel technologies focused on improving cervical cancer screening and are confident that Inverness’ expertise in the areas of women’s health care and point-of-care diagnostics will help drive commercialization of our products,” said Peter Gombrich, CEO, Diamics. “I am very much looking forward to working with Inverness and welcoming their involvement in Diamics.”

IMI said it will provide strategic and hands-on assistance in key areas including assay development, product design, manufacturing and distribution. As part of the strategic relationship, both parties will also work to exploit and develop Diamics’ point-of-care technology.

Diamics is developing a line of products designed to improve the effectiveness of cervical cancer screening and make the procedure less painful for patients. Currently, the company is producing its FDA-cleared CerCol cervical cancer collection system, a soft-tipped device, for use with its Pap-Map system. Together, these components allow the clinician to painlessly capture 360 degrees of cervical material and transfer the cells, with their spatial orientation intact, to a slide to support localization of identified lesions. Diamics’ point-of-care offering, the C-Map system, is now in pre-clinical trials. The C-Map system combines a method for cervical sampling and slide preparation with immunological probes that characterize the biological features of the sample. The C-Map system uses automation to identify abnormalities as expressed within the context of normal cellular morphology and eliminates the need for a cell by cell analysis, yielding greater sensitivity and specificity than cytology, according to the company.

Sontra Medical (Franklin, Massachusetts) reported that it completed the final closing of an equity financing transaction in which it received about $1,815,000 from individuals, including a total of $105,000 invested by a member of the board of directors and an executive officer of the company, and institutions, each of whom is an accredited investor, in a series of closings.

The company issued 1,815,000 units in the financing at a purchase price of $1 per unit. Each unit is comprised of one share of the company’s common stock, and a warrant to purchase 0.3 shares of the company’s common stock at an exercise price of $1.40.

The company previously disclosed the first two closings of the financing, in which it raised about $1.25 million. The final closing of the financing, in which the company raised an additional $565,000, occurred on July 16.

Sontra Medical owns technology in ultrasound and skin permeation methods used in transdermal science for therapeutic and diagnostic applications, and is developing a non-invasive, continuous transdermal glucose monitor (CTGM) for use in the diabetes and intensive care markets. The CTGM device makes use of the FDA-approved SonoPrep ultrasound-mediated skin permeation system. In addition to utilizing its technical competencies, the company said it intends to pursue acquisition and licensing arrangements of new technologies for development and possible partnering opportunities.

In other financing news:

The Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse (PLSG), the private/public partnership putting the region’s life sciences industry on a fast track for growth, reported that it has committed a $180,000 investment in Cartesia Dx (Pittsburgh) (formerly doing business as Arthritis Imaging). The company uses a combination of three-dimensional and thermal images to more accurately diagnose and track the progression of inflammation in patients.

The PLSG investment will support development and testing of a final device prototype of the Arthritis Imager and a software interface that is designed to facilitate accurate and simple data collection and analysis.

Cartesia Dx is the first commercialized company based on technology developed and clinically tested at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC . Carnegie Mellon University ’s Medical Robotics Institute and the University of Pittsburgh also have contributed technological expertise to the project.

Compared with other imaging modalities, such as X-ray and MRI, the company said its technology can be used in an office setting, poses no radiation risk, and can be performed in minutes.

• Biomagnetics Diagnostics (Orangevale, California) reported that it has completed a corporate restructure. Through the efforts of its President and CEO Clayton Hardman, the company just completed a restructuring involving the return of 15,308,938 million shares back to the treasury and reorganization of the board.

“We’re in the business of developing medical diagnostics systems and would be remiss in not diagnosing ourselves,” said Hardman. “Our analysis indicated we needed to be proactive on an ongoing basis which would facilitate not only the acquisition of additional capital investment to continue product development but would also build a solid foundation for a potential future buyout.”

Biomagnetics Diagnostics is a developer of diagnostic equipment and immunoassays.