NEW YORK (GenomeWeb news) – Molecular Biometrics has reeled in $12 million in Series A financing from Safeguard Scientifics and Oxford Bioscience Partners, Safeguard said today.
The metabolomics-based diagnostics company plans to use the funding for research and development for its ViaMetrics-E product, which is a test used to identify which embryos have the greatest reproductive potential for use in in vitro fertilization, and to launch the technology next year in Europe, Japan, and Australia.
Molecular Biometrics’ technology also is being used in reproductive health and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s.
The Chester, NJ-based company believes its biospectroscopy and metabolomic technologies may “hold significant potential to more accurately assess the reproductive potential of individual embryos,” Molecular Biometrics CEO James Posillico said in a statement.
Posillico said the company could improve on the success rate of IVT, which is around 25 to 35 percent worldwide, “and help shift the practice away from multiple embryo transfer.”
The company said that the cost of an assisted reproductive cycle in the US is between $10,000 and $15,000, and lowering the number of necessary cycles and the complications associated with multiple births “could result in savings to the overall healthcare system.”
Safeguard also said that its Life Sciences Group Managing Directors Gary Kurtzman and James Datin and Oxford Bioscience Partners’ Michael Lytton will join Molecular Biometrics’ board of directors.