NEW YORK – In vitro diagnostic company Specific Diagnostics announced today it has secured $12.5 million in funding from venture capital firm Telegraph Hill Partners.
The Mountain View, California-based firm said it plans to use the money to support commercialization of its Reveal platform, an antibiotic susceptibility test that provides results in four hours. The company's underlying technology is a patented small molecule sensor array system that can detect low concentrations of volatile organic compounds. The SMS array responds to metabolic byproducts produced by microorganisms, detecting growth, assessing antibiotic effectiveness, and determining microorganism identification, according to Specific Diagnostics' website.
In a statement, it said that it plans to progress its technology to clinical studies and prepare Reveal for both the European and United States markets.
"As disease antibiotic-resistance quickly evolves, patients need fast and more targeted test results so infections can be properly treated quickly from the time that blood culture samples go positive," Paul Grossman, a member of Telegraph Hill Partners who will be joining Specific Diagnostics' board of directors, said in a statement.