A Thunder Bay-based medical imaging company has secured $3 million from an American investment firm to support its ongoing development work of a leading edge mammography technology.
XLV Diagnostics announced May 28 that it has closed a $3-million Series A investment round with Bernard M. Gordon Charitable Remainder Unitrust of Boston.
The money is earmarked for continued product development and regulatory approval of “low-cost, next-generation” digital mammography machines.
The company has a machine that can provide a mammography image quality equal to the modern systems currently in use, but at a “fraction of the cost.”
In a news release, XLV president-CEO Sorin Marcovici said with many radiology departments replacing traditional film and screen system with digital technology, XLV’s product would be perfect for many global markets where more than 600 million women don’t have access to early breast cancer detection screening.
"XLV's technology is attractive in emerging markets, such as China, India and Brazil, where breast cancer cases are outpacing access to image based diagnostic technology.”
"This financing supports multiple key milestones along the path to installing the first XLV clinical mammography machine at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and obtaining Canadian, U.S. and European regulatory approvals in preparation for taking our product global."
Bernie Gordon said as experienced investors in medical devices, they were “impressed” with XLV’s still-developing technology.
"We look forward to combining our many years of experience in launching medical device companies with the innovative academic research that emanated from XLV's founding institutions, and to working with the company's seasoned management team."
The technology is founded on research from Dr. John Rowlands at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and TBRRI where he was founding scientific director.
"XLV Diagnostics is a good example of the spinoff companies that emerge from Thunder Bay Regional Research Institute (TBRRI)," said Roxanne Deslauriers, acting CEO of TBRRI. “Partnerships such as this will continue to fuel our health sciences cluster."
