NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Epistem Holdings said that it plans to raise £2.8 million ($4.4 million) through the placement of 793,398 new ordinary shares at 350 pence each.
The offering price is a slight discount to the trading price of around 362.5 pence before the placement was announced Friday. The Manchester, UK-based firm said that it has conditionally placed the shares with unnamed existing and new institutional investors.
Epistem plans to use the proceeds from the placement to accelerate development of its Genedrive point-of-care device for molecular diagnostics, pharmacogenomics, biodefense, and forensic applications. The firm said the system, which it is developing for bacterial, viral, fungal, and gene mutations, is in clinical trials across a number of diagnostic areas.
Epistem also has biomarker deals with several pharmaceutical firms including Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson.