Looking to allow customers to directly purchase its diagnostics system that runs a full panel of blood tests, Babson Diagnostics Inc. raised $31 million in new series B financing. The proceeds will be used to scale the Austin, Texas-based company to bring its finger-prick blood microsampling system to retail locations across the country.
Developers of blood tests for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are poised to see a spike in demand, following the FDA’s accelerated approval on Tuesday of Cambridge, Mass.-based Biogen Inc.’s AD drug treatment Aduhelm (aducanumab). The FDA’s decision paves the way for AD assays to move beyond aiding in drug development toward addressing ongoing issues with undiagnosed cases.
HONG KONG – Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Israel have developed a way to instantly monitor blood levels of the antipsychotic drug clozapine. BGU’s solution is based on an electrochemical microsensor developed by Hadar Ben-Yoav from BGU’s Department of Biomedical Engineering and Ilse Katz Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology.
Truvian Sciences Inc. has closed more than $105 million in an oversubscribed series C financing round that will help jumpstart the evaluation of the company’s automated benchtop blood testing system. The round was led by TYH Ventures, Glen Tullman of 7wireventures, and Wittington Ventures.
Driving to a laboratory for blood testing may soon be a thing of the past. Babson Diagnostics Inc. just completed a pivotal study of its new system for collecting and analyzing blood from a finger prick at a pharmacy counter. The results indicate that the microsample system provides comparable results to phlebotomist-drawn venipuncture blood samples.
TORONTO – Waterloo, Ontario-based health startup Kenota Inc. has raised $9 million in series A funding to develop an in-clinic allergy test that takes less than 30 minutes and requires only a few drops of blood from a mild finger prick. This brings the total investment to $11 million for a point-of-care system that detects antibodies signaling allergies to egg, milk and peanuts and that will eventually search out environmental allergies to bee stings and shellfish.
A team of scientists at Duke Health has identified biomarkers that accurately detect viral infections before a person becomes symptomatic. The findings were published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
DUBLIN – Liquid biopsy developer Freenome Inc. has – literally – capitalized on its recent proof-of-concept AI-Emerge colorectal cancer (CRC) screening study by raising $270 million in a series C round that will enable the South San Francisco firm to complete its ongoing Preempt CRC registration study and to file for pre-market approval from the FDA.