Myconostic raises L40 per share in series C

London UK-based Amphion Innovations says that its partner company, Myconostica, a Manchester University spin-out that specializes in a new type of molecular diagnostic test for infectious diseases, has raised L570,000 ($779,458) at L40 per share for the first close of a series C preferred financing. Amphion now owns approximately 34% of Myconostica, which is now valued at L7.8 million post money, on a fully-diluted basis.

Myconostica is developing and commercializing a menu of real-time molecular diagnostic tests for life-threatening fungal infections. Over 10 million people are at risk of these infections in Europe and North America each year. A fundamental benefit of Myconostica's tests is the fact that they are simple and can be used for multiple fungi in a single process, thereby allowing much faster and more precise diagnosis, Amphion noted.

The capital raised in this round of financing will support the launch and marketing of Myconostica's first products, the MycXtra fungal DNA extraction system and PneuMyco, a real-time molecular test for Aspergillus and Pneumocystis. These products are in the final stages of CE marking and will be formally launched at the Trends in Medical Mycology meeting, to be held in Turin, Italy, on October 30. A US launch of the product is anticipated in second-quarter 2008.