NEW YORK – Finnish molecular diagnostics company Mobidiag announced Tuesday that it has been granted €1.5 million ($1.68 million) in funding from Business Finland to advance a sepsis test on the firm's Novodiag system.
Business Finland — a government agency which funds research in the country — awarded Mobidiag an initial grant in 2018, and the new funding brings the total amount awarded to $3.3 million.
Mobidiag is developing a two-hour test to detect blood stream infections directly from whole-blood samples.
"There are currently no relevant tests available that can rapidly diagnose sepsis directly from patient blood samples and there is an urgent need for efficient, accurate, and most importantly, rapid diagnostic tests given the speed at which sepsis can progress in patients," said Tuomas Tenkanen, Mobidiag's CEO, in a statement .
Mobidiag has previous experience in developing a diagnostic test for sepsis with its Prove-it product which was able to detect 80 targets simultaneously from blood cultures, according to the firm.
Earlier this year, the Espoo, Finland-based firm received a $28 million, four-year growth capital loan from the European Investment bank to expand its assay menu.