Microbio has announced a capital raise to support its clinical trials, commercialisation and domestic and international manufacturing.
The company said the capital raise will support market entry plans for its InfectID-BSI test which has the potential to significantly improve the detection of bloodstream infection and sepsis.
Bloodstream infection (BSI) and sepsis result in 11 million deaths annually.
InfectID-BSI is an in vitro diagnostic test that informs clinicians within three hours of taking a blood sample which infection to treat.
The current ‘gold standard’ method to identify the causative pathogen is a slow, two-step blood culturing and identification process that takes between 12 hours and several days.
Microbio’s InfectID-BSI identifies 26 common BSI/sepsis-causing pathogens, using Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) instruments, which are open hardware platforms used in pathology labs around the world.
Microbio said it has appointed the Landrich Group to manage clinical evaluation trials across four sites in the US, India, South America and Australia.
The company has now commenced a capital raise prior to the mid-year launch of InfectID-BSI in the European market. This will be followed by the launch of the product in the India, the US, Australia and a number of Asian markets.
CEO Paul Carboon said, “The launch of our test is keenly anticipated,”
“It has been 16 years in development and thanks to the support of key investors and tireless work by our scientific and administrative team we are within weeks of going to market which is a major milestone for the company.
“We are also delighted to have appointed WG Partners as our corporate advisors for what will be our last capital raise before we are in the market and generating income.
"WG Partners will provide Microbio with a range of advisory services to help the company deliver on its ambitions over the next few years. The track record of London based healthcare specialist investment bank WG Partners speaks for itself having completed transactions with a total value of £8.2 billion (A$144 billion) in the past 10 years.”
“We are excited that commercialisation is now imminent and that we are a step closer to providing this powerful diagnostic tool to clinicians across the globe,” added Mr Carboon.