Bio-tech start-up Biosensia secures €1.2m in funding

9 Nov 2011

Pictured at NovaUCD is Diarmuid Flavin, CEO, Biosensia. Biosensia is based at NovaUD Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre, the hub of innovation and knowledge transfer activities at UCD

Biosensia, an Irish point-of-care diagnostics company based at NovaUCD in Dublin, has secured €1.2m in new funding as it plans to advance its regulatory and commercial strategy for its platform in Europe and the US. Biosensia is also planning to scale-up its employee headcount by 10 people by 2013.

ACT Venture Capital, through its AIB Start-up Accelerator Fund led the funding round, and included existing investors Seroba BioVentures and Atlantic Bridge.

The new funding will be used to secure CE mark and FDA regulatory approval for Biosensia’s products in Europe and the US and to advance the company’s commercial partnership strategy.

The in-vitro diagnostics company Biosensia, which is headquartered at NovaUCD, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre, currently employs five people but it intends to increase staff numbers to 15 by 2013 as part of its commercialisation strategy.

Biosensia’s RapiPlex platform

Biosensia’s platform, RapiPlex, is multiplexing point-of-care in-vitro diagnostics platform. It works by enabling the transition of complex immunoassays from the central laboratory to the point of care across a variety of sample types.

Diarmuid Flavin, CEO, Biosensia, said this morning that RapiPlex has multiple point-of-care applications, including in medical, environmental, food safety and security area.

He said RapiPlex can perform up to 12 separate analyses simultaneously on a single sample and provides test results in five minutes. The RapiPlex platform is also integrated with an optical reader that provides a numerical read out. This read out does not require user interpretation.

“This is an exciting time in Biosensia. Our commercialisation plans and technology are progressing rapidly. With this financing, the company can further capitalise on its revolutionary RapiPlex technology. We see a significant market demand across a range of diagnostic applications for our RapiPlex platform,” said Flavin.

“We have a great product and this investment will allow us to complete regulatory requirements in the US and Europe, and seek partners to expand into new market opportunities.”

Carmel Doyle was a long-time reporter with Silicon Republic

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