Daktari Press Release Partners Innovation Fund and Daktari Diagnostics, Inc. Close Series A Financing and Sign License Agreement with
Boston, MA – Partners Innovation Fund and Daktari Diagnostics, Inc. (www.daktaridx.com), a company developing point-of-care diagnostics for infectious diseases, announced today the closing of a $2.8MM Series A financing. The round was led by the Partners Innovation Fund, Mass Medical Angels, and Norwich Ventures, and included participation by several other Boston-area angel groups, including the Launchpad Venture Group, Hub Angels Investment Group, and Boston Harbor Angels.
“The fact that Daktari was able to attract a broad base of investors into an oversubscribed round, despite an extremely challenging fundraising environment, speaks to the quality of the opportunity,” said Roger Kitterman, Partner at the Innovation Fund of Partners Healthcare.
Daktari Diagnostics, Inc, is a new diagnostics company focused exclusively on the most pressing challenges in global health. Founded by William Rodriguez, MD, formerly of Harvard's Partners AIDS Research Center and the William J. Clinton Foundation, and Mehmet Toner, PhD, Director of the BioMicroElectroMechanical Systems Center located at the Massachusetts General Hospital, the company develops simple, accurate, and affordable products that deliver critical diagnostic information to clinicians and patients across the globe. “Daktari's solution to CD4 counting for global health applications is simple, robust, and elegant. This is microfluidics at its best," said Dr. Toner. Simultaneous with the financing, Stan Lapidus, founder and Chairman of Helicos Biosciences and Ed Roberts, David Sarnoff Professor of Management of Technology at MIT, and founder and chair of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, have joined the Board of Directors of the company.
Daktari Diagnostics will use the funding to complete early development of its initial product, a revolutionary HIV point-of-care test that can perform critical, low-cost CD4 white blood cell counts to guide treatment. The World Health Organization has identified simple, portable CD4 diagnostic devices as a critical need in the global fight against HIV/AIDS. Daktari’s CD4 counter will bring this essential blood test to parts of the world where millions of people now have access to life-saving drugs, yet cannot begin or monitor treatment due to inadequate diagnostics.
The company also announced that it has exclusively licensed key cell detection and microfluidics intellectual property developed at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). As part of the license, MGH has agreed to waive all royalties for sales of products in developing countries. “As part of our commitment to improving care in global health settings, we believe this licensing strategy will maximize access to these critical diagnostics,” said Frances Toneguzzo, from Partners Research Ventures & Licensing for MGH.
About Partners HealthCare
Partners HealthCare is an integrated health system founded by Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. In addition to its two academic medical centers, the Partners system also includes community and specialty hospitals, community health centers, a physician network, home health and long-term care services, and other health-related entities. Partners is one of the nation’s leading biomedical research organizations and a principal teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. Partners HealthCare is a non-profit organization. For more information, visit www.partners.org.
About Partners Innovation Fund
The Partners Innovation Fund was established in 2007 with a total commitment of $35 million from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. It addresses an unmet need for funding of early-stage technology and research which is expected to lead to improved medical care for patients. The Fund uses all gains to fund new investments. Its managing staff has more than 50 years of combined experience in early-stage venture capital, start-up management, and technology development. /investors_and_entrepreneurs
About Daktari Diagnostics, Inc.
Daktari Diagnostics, Inc. was founded in 2008 by Bill Rodriguez, an experienced executive in global health delivery and former Chief Medical Officer of the William J. Clinton Foundation, and Mehmet Toner, a professor of engineering at Harvard and MIT widely hailed as a leader in applying microfluidic technologies to medicine. With a top executive team and global partnerships with leading technology developers, Daktari plans to bring the power of accurate, immediate clinical diagnostics to hundreds of millions of people around the world. http://www.daktaridx.com/