Michelson Diagnostics secures £600k investment for further growth

22 March 2012

Michelson Diagnostics has announced a further investment of £607k by shareholders Octopus Investments, Catapult Venture Managers and individual investors, especially London Business Angels.

The investment, which was an extension to a £1.92m investment in October 2011, will be used to further expand sales and support infrastructure for its VivoSight skin cancer laser scanners in the USA and Europe.

 The Company’s first product based on its patented multi-beam optical coherence tomography (OCT) technology, the VivoSight scanner, is expected to revolutionise the market for the non-invasive diagnosis and treatment of non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC).

The VivoSight scanner has already won CE and FDA regulatory clearance for clinical use in Europe and the USA, and has entered commercial service at leading dermatology clinics in the USA and Germany, where it is attracting much clinical interest. Michelson’s VivoSight scanner enables clinicians to ‘see’ under the skin surface in real time, to help them decide whether to treat a lesion, what treatment to use, and to show them how far a tumour has spread, so that surgery is required only once and conserves healthy tissue.

This is expected to make non-melanoma skin cancer treatment more efficient and cost-effective, and to be better for the patient by reducing unnecessary surgery. Looking to the future, the VivoSight scanner also has the potential to guide and monitor the use of next generation of non-invasive topical treatments for NMSC that are currently in clinical development.

Jon Holmes, CEO of Michelson Diagnostics, commented: “Michelson Diagnostics has entered an exciting phase of its development: We are seeing rapidly growing belief by key-opinion-leader dermatologists in the clinical utility of VivoSight OCT images of skin cancers and other lesion types, and a small but growing installed base of scanners in clinics who are using our scanners, in the clinical pathway for non-melanoma skin cancer, on a routine commercial basis in USA and Germany. Production of new scanners has already doubled since mid-2011 and looks set to increase further. This additional £607k investment underpins our growth plans in 2012 so that we are well placed to accelerate further, as demand for VivoSights starts to snowball.”

Simon Andrews of Octopussaid, “Michelson Diagnostics is making excellent progress in delivering its business plan and vision of making the use of VivoSight OCT accepted by dermatologists as the ‘standard of care’ for non-melanoma skin cancer. We are very pleased at the successful completion of this funding round, which will enable Jon and the management team to continue their focus on building on their early successes in commercial roll-out of this exciting technology.”

Funds were provided from the Octopus Venture Partners, Catapult (through the Advantage Enterprise & Innovation Fund), London Business Angels EIS Roundtable Syndicate Fund, and individual investors. Octopus was advised by Shoosmiths (Legal) and Mayfield Consulting (financial DD). Michelson Diagnostics was advised by Rawlison Butler (Legal)

Source: Michelson Diagnostics

 

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