Prodesse gets new funding; improves flu assay

Waukesha, Wis. -- Prodesse, Inc. announced Monday that it has received additional business investment and that it has completed a major process improvement to its ProFlu-1 assay.

The company reported that a group of its core investors, plus three new accredited individuals, have provided an additional $850,000 in funding. The offering is composed of a debt instrument convertible into equity at increasing prices over a three-year period.

Prodesse is a biotechnology company focused on developing analyte specific reagents that can be used to detect infectious pathogens.

"With Prodesse now nearly cash-flow positive and our new manufacturing facility completed, this additional funding will be used to secure additional licenses, increase capacity for stategic collaborations, and for application for FDA clearance on one or more of our tests," said company CEO Tom Shannon. "Prodesse's customers repeatedly tell us that we are on the leading edge of the accelerating molecular diagnostics revolution, with our multiplexing capabilities being particularly valuable. Our investors seem to agree. Prodesse remains the only company in the world to have successfully commercialized multiplex Real Time PCR assays capable of detecting and differentiating three organisms and an internal control."

Regarding the assay improvement, the company said its ProFlu-1 detects and differentiates, from a single patient sample, Influenza A, Influenza B and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). The improved version of ProFlu-1 is a "1-step" RT-PCR, which means that it requires substantially less `hands-on' time and provides results even faster, the company reported. "With this process improvement, ProFlu-1 is now sufficiently streamlined that it can be effectively used in the highest throughput labs," said Tom Shannon, CEO. "In the first week after release, we have shipped ProFlu-1 to several of the largest and most prestigious US labs."