£22m fundraise targeted for innovative diabetes monitoring platform

Radisens Diagnostics, an Irish medtech business, is aiming to raise £22 million to bring its innovative diabetes management platform to market, backed by investors including Enterprise Ireland, a top American university as well as being advised by accountancy firm Moore Stephens.

Informatics

Radisens is developing its platform to meet primary care needs for monitoring of those diagnosed with diabetes, and other co-occurring clinical conditions. The platform uses Radisens’ proprietary room temperature cartridge storage and small finger-prick sampling technologies, and its high-risk patient management tests, to uniquely address this market need.

Radisens’ diagnostic platform, a small table-top device to be operated by a single medical professional will focus on diabetes, cardiovascular and kidney monitoring, before cross-selling into neighbouring clinical care pathways.

Investments

Current investors in Radisens include Enterprise Ireland, the biggest venture capital investor in Irish businesses; Kernel Capital; one of the most prestigious American universities; and private investors. To date, Radisens has received £10m of development funding, research grants and equity investment from a number of multinational organisations and international institutions, yielding cost-effective product development.

Diabetes is one of the biggest current healthcare challenges, with an estimated 442 million adults worldwide, or 1 in 11, suffering from the condition. European Union and USA healthcare systems spend £78 billion and £284 billion, respectively, managing diabetes. This represents up to 15% of national healthcare budgets, with the largest proportion relating to hospital inpatient costs.

Monitoring diabetes

Regular monitoring in primary care clinics of those already diagnosed with diabetes has been shown to reduce such healthcare costs and improve patient outcomes. However, clinics require shorter patient turnaround times, improved workflow efficiencies, high-risk patient management support and improved patient experience.

Radisens includes a scientific team whose lead previously made significant contributions to the development of HIV testing, and a commercial team whose lead was previously involved in the launch of Viagra. The funds raised in this round will prepare the platform for preclinical trials, with the subsequent round taking it through regulatory approval and market launch to profitable growth.