NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Molecular diagnostics developer Trovagene today said that it has closed on a registered direct offering of $15 million of its common stock to an institutional investor at $7 per share.
Separately, the company and RainDance Technologies said earlier in the week that Trovagene has adopted RainDance's RainDrop Digital PCR System for R&D work.
Net proceeds from its $15 million offering will be used for R&D activities, working capital, and general corporate purposes, Trovagene said.
Also, the company said that it is using RainDance's digital PCR system, and eventually will bring the technology into its CLIA laboratory. Trovagene also has developed a cell-free DNA mutation assay with RainDance's instrument, the two firms said.
The system enables a hundred-fold increase in DNA amounts that can be investigated for cancer mutation detection, they said, adding it can analyze up to 10 million picoliter-sized droplets in a single assay. Further, the platform enables quantification of the relative amounts of mutated DNA in a sample.
"Trovagene's goal is to help improve detection and monitoring of cancer patients undergoing treatment, particularly those with metastatic cancers," Mark Erlander, chief scientific officer of Trovagene, said in a statement. "Analyzing the large amounts of DNA present in urine requires a platform capable of handling hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of reactions. The RainDrop System is ideally suited for this task and enables Trovagene technology to be even more sensitive."