NEW YORK – Tangen Biosciences said on Thursday that it has closed a $12.2 million Series B preferred stock financing with participation from current and new investors, including Connecticut Innovations, VC23, Leading Edge Ventures, and Parvizi Surgical. The financing was oversubscribed from the initial $10 million target.
Tangen said it will use net proceeds from the financing to scale up the manufacturing capacity for its SARS-CoV-2 point-of-care diagnostic test and accelerate development of an upcoming panel test that will include influenza A/B, respiratory syncytial virus, and SARS-CoV-2 targets.
The company's POC test would run on its GeneSpark nucleic acid amplification system and would be sensitive enough for early detection of the virus from nasopharyngeal samples in about an hour. It would also be expected to garner a CLIA waiver for use in doctors' offices.
In conjunction with the financing, Tangen named Vance Kershner and Alan Levin to its board of directors.
"Tangen's panel test for simultaneously detecting SARS-CoV-2, Flu A/B, and RSV are planned for release this fall during the flu season," Tangen President and CEO Richard Birkmeyer said in a statement. "Once the type of respiratory disease is identified, patients can experience better clinical outcome by having target-appropriate treatment. I am pleased that Tangen Biosciences is in a unique position to be a molecular diagnostic point-of-care platform that can detect all of these viruses simultaneously."
In April, Tangen was awarded a $696,000 contract from the US Department of Health and Human Services' Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to support development of its POC SARS-CoV-2 test.