Bionas closes $2.8M financing deal

Rostock, Germany-based Bionas GmbH, a specialist in profiling the metabolic activity of cells in vitro, has closed a 2.1 million euros ($2.8 million) financing deal to fund sales, marketing and product expansion. GENIUS Venture Capital GmbH and the KfW-Bankengruppe participated in the financing. Additionally, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern granted subsidies of undisclosed amounts for two development projects.

"The new funding allows us to expand the sales and marketing of Bionas analyzing systems throughout Europe and the USA," said Ralf Ehret, chief executive of Bionas. "We will also boost technical innovations for novel products and applications to assure the continuous growth of the company," he added.

The Bionas 2500 analyzing system, the company's main product, gives a complete overview of the physiologic state of cells. It can be used to analyze different signal transduction pathways, allowing target validation studies at an early stage in the drug discovery process, the firm stated. Recently, Bionas devices were selected by Solvay Pharmaceuticals for target validation studies.