NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Rheonix has raised $14 million through a private placement of debt and equity, the Ithaca, NY-based molecular diagnostics company said today.
Rheonix intends to use the funds to remodel its existing space and add a new headquarters to its physical operations. The firm said the remodeling and expansion will enable it to scale up manufacturing capabilities and capacity as it begins production of the Rheonix Chemistry and Reagent Device, or CARD, cartridges for its molecular diagnostic system.
The disposable cartridge is the size of a credit card that is inserted into the firm's Encompass MDx benchtop instrument to run multiple samples through a fully integrated molecular assay (sample extraction, DNA purification, amplification, and array-based endpoint detection) with no user intervention.
The firm inked an alliance with Life Technologies earlier this year to develop a platform for the food safety testing market that would include the use of the CARD cartridges. Rheonix said today that the new funds would enable it to fulfill its part of the alliance, while also supporting its first clinical molecular diagnostic product offering and a US Food and Drug Administration submission.
Though the firm didn't disclose which end market its first product will target, Rheonix President Tony Eisenhut told PCR Insider this past summer that the firm is focusing its clinical development primarily on infectious diseases, including a sexually transmitted infection panel.
The financing round was led by Cayuga Venture Fund and Rand Capital SBIC.
"Over the past several months, Rheonix has positioned itself to address the market gap that is developing in the sample-to-answer molecular diagnostics market," Eisenhut said today in a statement. "This funding is the latest validation of the work we have done, and the need that still exists, to address the major challenges of panel testing, workforce shortages and clinical reimbursement pressures."