Successful funding round for cancer diagnostics company
A YORKSHIRE medical technology company has secured more funding to continue its work to improve cancer diagnosis.
Zilico, based at The Sheffield Bioincubator, has received funding from new and existing investors which will be used to continue the development of its diagnosis technology for cervical cancer.
The company said that interim data from one of its ongoing multi-centre clinical trials aimed at the colposcopy or referral market was encouraging and is on track to launch its first product next year.
The successful funding round follows Zilico’s completion of the Investing in Health programme managed by Grant Thornton.
The programme gives healthcare technology companies in Yorkshire the advice and resources needed to access equity funding from national and international investors.
Managed by a consortium of finance and healthcare experts, it also offers help to companies looking at ways of raising other types of finance such as bank debt, asset based lending and sales finance.
Zilico’s current investors include Exomedica, Fusion IP, Viking Fund, STH NHS Trust and Medipex.
Sameer Kothari, chief executive of Zilico, said: “We are very pleased to secure this new round of funding as it allows us to further progress our development towards a product launch for 2011. I believe it is the strength of our proposition that has enabled Zilico to bring on board a new investor especially after the 2009 global downturn in the investment market.
“Going through the Investing in Health programme gave us confidence in our investment proposition and the team provided constructive feedback on our presentation. It also opened up new networks for us and brought us some very useful new investor contacts.”
Lisa Ward, manager at Grant Thornton, said: “We could see the potential of Zilico’s technology as soon as we started working with them so we’re delighted they have secured this latest round of funding.
“Half a million women are diagnosed with the disease each year and with the current cervical cancer screening and diagnostic market worth around $2.1 bn, companies such as Zilico are well placed to make a real impact on the cancer statistics.”
The Investing in Health programme is part of Yorkshire Forward’s strategy to support the development of the healthcare technologies industry in the region.
