Less than a year after raising about $800,000 through a Third Frontier grant from the state of Ohio, vascular imaging company InfraRed Imaging Systems Inc. is looking for more.
The company intends to raise $500,000, and has so far received commitments for about $50,000 of that amount, according to a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
CEO Dale Siegel didn’t immediately return a call or e-mail.
Siegel said a few months ago that he was planning to move the company from Bethlehem, Pa., to Ohio thanks to the Third Frontier grant (PDF). He wasn’t sure where in Ohio he planned to move the company. However, the Cleveland suburb of Eastlake seemed the leading candidate due to its proximity to a manufacturing partner. Siegel, however, was also considering locations in the Columbus area near his Marysville home.
Though InfraRed Imaging hasn’t registered any sales, it has something most young medical device companies would kill for: approval from the Food & Drug Administration to sell its signature product. The Vascular Viewer uses near-infrared light to visualize superficial, and deeper veins and arteries. The company says the device increases clinicians’ accuracy while inserting a needle or catheter into a patient’s vein or artery, a process that’s usually done simply by sight and touch.
Nonetheless, it’s been a tough road for the company as it’s struggled to find funding to commercially launch the Vascular Viewer. That’s likely because investors fear potential customers view the technology as a “nice-to-have” instead of a “must-have.”
The Vascular Viewer is operational in five hospitals nationwide, including Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic.
InfraRed Imaging was founded in 2001 after licensing technology discovered at Dayton’s Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
