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Investor, Esaote Leads $6 Million Investment in Series E Funding for TechniScan Medical Systems

Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, breast ultrasound device developer, TechniScan Medical Systems, or TMS, announced today that it has just closed a $6 million in series E funding with leading international medical diagnostic equipment developer, Esaote providing over half of the funding. As part of the agreement of this funding, both companies will join into an Original Equipment Manufacturing or OEM agreement, which would allow TMS to incorporate the Esaote products to be incorporated into its own product development and will also bring TMS’s products to the European markets.

Growing out of the Bioengineering Department of the University of Utah, TMS is a privately owned company which develops and manufactures technologies for ultrasound breast diagnostics. Furthermore, during the company’s inception, TMS has received grants from Utah’s Governor’s Office of Economic Development or GOED. One of the flagship products of TMS includes the Svara system. This is a system that employs ultrasound which uses a Warm Bath Ultrasound or WBU. This procedure allows for the ultrasound to create accurate 3D images of the breast. The Svara system is designed to help physicians in the diagnostics of breast cancers and other pathologies of the breast by providing them with new imaging of the anatomy of breast tissue.

According to TMS’s CEO, David C. Robinson; the timing of this round of funding and the agreement with Esaote validates the quality and the potential of market disruption of TMS’s product. The global financial crisis has almost dried up the funding for startup companies, but the fact that the Warm Bath Ultrasound platform has promise and the company’s investors have great hope for the potential of this platform and the Svara system.

The Svara system itself has a unique origin. The name of this system comes from the Hindu goddess of sound and the system works by completely submerging the breast in a warm bath of water, which then enables the ultrasound transducers to emit sound waves that travel through and in the breast, creating the imaging needed to provide physicians with the necessary diagnostic data.

The imaging system developed by TMS has won applause from many in the medical community and the company has, since its inception, received over $24 million in equity financing and $5 million from the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute. Furthermore, the Svara system is still limited to use only in research until it clears inspection and wins the approval of the FDA.

Esaote is a world leader in the development and manufacturing of medical diagnostic devices. Some of the devices that Esaote manufactures include ultrasound devices, MRIs, non-imaging ECG, and even diagnostic devices for veterinary medicine as well. Esaote is headquartered in Genoa, Italy and also has offices in other places in Italy, as well as in France, Germany, Russia, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Hong Kong, China, and India.

For more information about TechniScan Medical Systems, click here.

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