CarieScan secures £2 million for global sales & marketing.CarieScan, based in Dundee, is taking to market a device which uses AC impedance spectroscopy (ACIST) to determine the mineral density of dental substrate, as a means of detecting tooth decay at an earlier stage than usual, and monitoring its progress accurately.
CarieScan, based in Dundee, is taking to market a device which uses AC impedance spectroscopy (ACIST) to determine the mineral density of dental substrate, as a means of detecting tooth decay at an earlier stage than usual, and monitoring its progress accurately.
CarieScan is a wholly owned subsidiary of 3D Diagnostic Imaging, which was formed last year to acquire the assets of IDMoS, which had been placed in administration last April.
The CarieScan PRO™ is a hand-held battery operated device, which gives dentists the possibility of measuring and monitoring the effect of treatment regimes to show decay advance or regression, and optimise individual treatments for different patients. The device was developed by IDMoS, which raised significant capital and floated on AIM, but was unable to renegotiate an agreement with distributors Dentsply, and was forced into administration.
CarieScan’s CEO Graham Lay had joined IDMoS early in 2007, shortly after the company had raised a further £2 million on AIM, as its technical and operations director. He had previously been a senior vice president with Johnson and Johnson Medical and CEO of a medical device start-up Nexan Ltd before starting his own consultancy business (LCMS), and could see the difficulties which the company was facing. He was appointed COO then CEO in rapid succession, and had started to make substantial reductions in cash burn, but was unable to prevent the company’s closure. However, the purchase of IDMoS’s assets put CarieScan into a strong position, with a fully developed product ready to go to market, and a scaled down staff – from 18 to now only seven people, most of whom worked previously with IDMoS.
The patents acquired from IDMoS are wide ranging, and give CarieScan the opportunity to investigate different applications in the future, in particular the monitoring of osteoporosis.
The PRO™ product has regulatory approval for use in Europe and Canada, and is currently being sold in the UK and Europe via a distributor. CarieScan is in discussions with a leading global distributor with the intention of raising its profile and taking the product into new markets. As Graham Lay observes, distributors are generally motivated by the margin they can make on the products they represent, and the PRO device benefits in this respect as it employs single-use disposable sensors, which have a relatively high margin. The USA represents a major market opportunity, and CarieScan has already submitted a 510K application for FDA regulatory approval.
The recent investment, completed at the end of February, was led by Evolve Capital plc (www.evolvecapital.co.uk), a London based VC listed on AIM, matched by Scottish Enterprise’s Scottish Venture Fund. DC Consulting was instrumental in arranging the deal, and Graham Lay pays particular tribute to the role that DC’s Alison Williamson played in bringing CarieScan to this point.
Contact: Graham Lay
01382 98616
www.cariescan.com