PrimeraDx Raises $20 Million More for Molecular Diagnostics Tool
Wade Roush9/21/09Follow @wroush
PrimeraDx, a four-year-old startup in Mansfield, MA, said today it has closed a $20 million Series C financing round to continue work on automated lab equipment that, according to the company, could vastly speed up a host of medical tests.
New investor CHL Medical Partners of Stamford, CT, led the round. Existing investors Abingworth, Burrill & Company, InterWest Partners, the Invus Group, Malaysian Technology Development Corporation, and MPM Capital also participated. PrimeraDx, also known as Primera Biosystems, has now raised roughly $55 million in all, including a $21 million B round in January 2008 and a $1.15 million debt funding round earlier this month.
PrimeraDx, a spinoff of Providence, RI-based Sention, is developing a machine called “ICEPlex” that can measure the quantities of up to 60 separate disease-related DNA or RNA sequences in a single biological sample. The company says the device can, for example, determine a patient’s “viral load”—or the amount of a particular virus circulating the the patient’s bloodstreams—within about 3 hours, compared to 7 to 10 days for conventional techniques.
In a statement, CHL partner Ronald Lennox said PrimeraDX is “positioned to dominate” the market for such equipment, and he called the startup “an excellent investment opportunity.”
