Intelligent Medical Devices Inc. is $3 million smarter, after securing new funding from a pair of unidentified investors to continue development of its molecular diagnostic kits.
IntelligentMDx has raised a total of $22 million from a group of unidentified investors since its 2004* launch, according to its website. Its latest convertible debt offering, begun May 12, gave investors the option of receiving payment in company stock rather than cash. The investors also frequently receive warrants allowing them to purchase additional stock at a set price.
Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed and company officials did not immediately return calls for comment.
IntelligentMDx is working on so-called “intelligent” diagnostic kits for rapid tests of infectious diseases. The devices make copies of genetic material from a small number of cells or fluid samples, simultaneously testing them for chemical markers specific to different diseases.
The devices also rely on mathematical algorithms to predict test failure and to simulate outside factors such as genetic mutations or contamination that could affect results. CEO Alice Jacobs and two other Boston-area researchers received a U.S. patent in June 2005 for a prototype of the devices now being readied for production.
The company recently completed renovations at its Cambridge facility, roughly doubling its size to about 18,000 square feet and adding new Biosafety Level 2 (BL2) laboratory space. BL2 labs allow for work on infectious agents, with numerous safeguards built into their designs to keep disease-carrying materials from escaping the workspace as well as preventing outside contamination.
*Correction, 8/20/2009: IntelligentMDx launched in 2004, not 2000 as originally reported. Return to the corrected sentence.