The funds will also support market development beyond EMEA and Australasia, where the company is already established, and will accelerate product development beyond the initial breast cancer application.
Endomagnetics’ SentiMag® instrument and Sienna+® tracer material have been well received by surgeons in Europe and Australasia. The products provide surgeons with a way of locating lymph nodes as part of cancer staging procedures, making them faster, more convenient and cost effective than the traditional radioisotope based techniques.
Endomagnetics’ system also allows the Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy (SLNB) technique to be extended to hospitals and clinics without access to radioisotope handling facilities.
“We are looking forward to bringing this important technology to the 40% of patients in the developed world – and the even greater proportion of patients globally – who cannot currently benefit from SLNB procedures,” said Dr Eric Mayes, CEO of Endomagnetics.
The latest financing round was led by Regents Park Partners II and existing investors, UCL Business and New Wave Ventures. It takes the total funds raised by Endomagnetics to £7m ($11m US).
“Endomagnetics is carving out an impressive position in healthcare solutions,” said Richard Gourlay, Managing Partner of Sussex Place Ventures, manager of the Regents Park Partners II fund. “We are delighted to be supporting expansion of the application areas and geographies.”
Earlier this year, Endomagnetics upgraded its SentiMag® probe to a higher performance model only 18mm in diameter, allowing for minimal surgical invasiveness, much improved sensitivity and better handling characteristics.
Commenting on the launch of its Gen2 SentiMag® in Australia at the 2014 Australasian Society of Breast Disease meeting, Dr Mayes said: “Our system has been evaluated across Australia and New Zealand, and the interest has created a promising pipeline for our distributor, Aurora BioScience.”
With sales growing strongly across multiple regions through Endomagnetics’ EMEA distributor Sysmex Europe, work is now underway to extend the technology to help clinicians address melanoma and colorectal cancer.
In June, the Company announced the acquisition of the ACT portfolio from Actium Biosystems to extend Endomagnetics’ oncology platform into therapeutics. Endomagnetics’ magnetic nanoparticle technology is expected to address the shortcomings of current hyperthermia systems by helping to control the delivery of heat to specific locations.
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