Bay Area’s POC Medical Systems Nabs $21 Million Series A for Portable Breast Cancer Screening Test

Funds for test, aimed at markets where current screening tests are not widely available, will support introduction in India

LIVERMORE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--POC Medical Systems™ Inc. announced today that it raised $ 21 million in Series A funding for clinical beta testing and initial commercialization of a rapid, portable breast cancer screening test, MammoAlert™ based on its Pandora CDx™ Microfluidics-based platform. This investment round was led by BioVentures Investors and joined by Sirius America Insurance Company, IFG Healthcare and MIA Investment Limited.

The blood-based test is designed to enable breast cancer screening broadly in regions such as India, where the test will be launched initially, where established screening methods are not widely accessible to large populations of women. The test is the first application of the company’s platform.

Marc Goldberg, Managing Director at BioVentures Investors commented, “Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in both the developed world and in emerging countries, where it is reaching epidemic levels. Sadly, according to the WHO only 50 million of the 1.6 billion women who need screening are tested due to access and affordability issues. POC’s disruptive technology will lead to more women around the world being screened on a timely basis, and thereby, make a profound difference in both their lives and in their countries’ healthcare systems.”

According to Mr. Sanjeev Saxena, Chairman & CEO, POC Medical Systems™ Inc., “Our immediate priority is to set-up a pilot manufacturing plant at the company’s headquarters in California and, following receipt of a CE Mark, launch the breast cancer screening system in India. India suffers from inadequate early breast cancer screening and where a woman dies of this horrible disease every seven minutes.” He noted that the company expects to receive a CE Mark by march of 2017.

The MammoAlert™ test generates a result in 15 minutes. The test employs a mobile device like a tablet that stores the data securely in the cloud, where it can then be shared remotely with doctors and healthcare systems. The test detects multiple cancer biomarkers from a drop of blood using advanced CD microfluidics based on a low cost microfluidic disk and then applies sophisticated algorithms to produce a result.

POC Medical Systems which was incubated at iGate in Livermore, California was founded by serial entrepreneur, Sanjeev Saxena, and has as its mission to make cancer and infectious disease screening accessible and affordable on a worldwide basis. The company’s technology platform resolves two key issues in modern medical diagnostics: geographic inaccessibility and cost prohibition. POC’s ultimate goal with the technology platform is to help save millions of lives through early stage screening and detection, and in turn, significantly reduce medical treatment costs.

About POC Medical Systems™

POC Medical Systems™ Inc. is a California based company founded in May 2013 by Mr. Sanjeev Saxena and his team of highly experienced technology and biomedical engineering professionals. The Pandora CDx developed by POC Medical Systems™ is a microfluidic platform for rapid, point-of-care serum screening. Based on a unique, low cost disposable microfluidic disk, the platform is a very simple and easy-to-use system which seeks to offer better healthcare screening solutions around the world.