NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – German molecular diagnostics company Curetis today announced the closing of a Series B financing round that brought in €12.5 million ($16.3 million) to further fund the firm's commercial and operational growth.
HBM Partners led the round and is taking a €6.0 million equity stake in Curetis. Existing investors aeris Capital, LSP Life Sciences Partners, Forbion Capital, BioMedInvest, Roche Venture Fund, CD Venture, and KfW also participated in the round. In addition, Curetis' management, several of its founders, private investors, and board members invested in the Series B round. In total, the company has raised €49.1 million in equity capital since its founding, it said.
Proceeds will be used to fund, among other things, a prospective multicenter trial with 2,000 patients and expansion of its commercial team and activities in Europe. Curetis has said that it anticipates filing a 510(k) submission with the US Food and Drug Administration for its Unyvero platform in 2014. The system enables DNA-based testing of clinically relevant samples for the detection of a broad panel of bacteria and antibiotic-resistant organisms from a sample in one run.
The firm said today that more than 50 "top-tier" hospitals in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have agreed to install the Unyvero platform for local testing. Sanofi Pasteur is also using the platform in an upcoming global Phase IIb trial, which is expected to expand Unyvero's market penetration, Curetis said.
Curetis added that it anticipates the continued "rapid international expansion" of its commercial distribution network across Europe, the Middle East, and into Asia, Latin America, and the US following FDA clearance.
Upcoming milestones include the launch of a second Unyvero cartridge application with medical products company Heraeus Medical and clinical data from Cempra Pharmaceutical's global Phase III trial in community-acquired bacterial pneumonia.