NEW YORK – Diagnostics developer Scope Fluidics has secured €6.2 million in new funding to advance its molecular diagnostic system, PCR One, it said on Monday.
Specifically, Scope Fluidics has raised €4.5 million ($5.3 million) from the sale of 127,915 offered shares, and obtained €1.7 million from the National Centre for Research and Development in Poland for its subsidiary Curiosity Diagnostics, which is developing the PCR One system.
The Warsaw, Poland-based firm said in a statement that the funding will be used in part to support the final phase of development of the PCR One system, a fully-automated molecular diagnostics instrument that can detect bacteria and viruses in approximately 15 minutes with multiplexing capabilities of up to 20 targets.
After obtaining CE-IVD for the PCR One device, Scope Fluidics said it will begin an early access program to run tens of thousands of tests in Poland and other European countries, requiring about 50 to 100 analyzers and 50,000 test cartridges.
"The current demand for rapid, point-of-care genetic testing is enormous, with the prospect of overdemand for the next few years," said the firm's CFO, Szymon Ruta. "This situation is a great opportunity for our company to find a potential buyer for the system," he added.
In February, Scope Fluidics raised 14 million Polish zloty by issuing shares, and the firm announced in September that it had secured a loan of up to €10 million from the European Investment Bank, which will also be used to support development of new methods for detecting infectious disease pathogens. The company also recently added Carl Wittwer, a developer of rapid PCR technologies and a cofounder of BioFire Diagnostics, to its advisory committee.