OptiScan Biomedical Completes $20 Million Series E Financing

HAYWARD, Calif., March 20, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- OptiScan Biomedical Corporation, a developer of an innovative continuous monitoring system for use in the surgical intensive care unit (SICU), today announced the closing of a $20 million Series E financing.  Use of the proceeds from the financing will support the commercialization of the company's lead product, the OptiScanner 5000, in the United States. OptiScan will also use a portion of the funding to continue the expansion of the company's OptiScanner platform to monitor additional analytes of interest for critically ill patients.

"This funding will allow OptiScan to strategically launch the OptiScanner 5000 in the United States.  In doing so, we will be able to provide both patients and healthcare providers in intensive care units across the country with the proven benefits of our plasma-based, continuous glucose monitoring technology.  At the same time, we will continue to advance our ongoing platform expansion efforts to incorporate monitoring of key additional analytes," said Cary G. Vance, chief executive officer of OptiScan.  "We would like to express our gratitude to our investors whose continued support enables the important work we are undertaking in meeting the complex monitoring needs of critically ill patients."

The OptiScanner is the first-of-its-kind automated, bedside blood monitor for use in the intensive care unit.  The OptiScanner 5000 measures glucose values directly from a micro-sample of blood using spectroscopy technology without the need for calibration, providing trending glucose data with updates every 15 minutes to help manage patients' glucose levels within a target range.  To support its U.S. commercialization efforts, OptiScan has initiated several post-market studies designed to further highlight the need for continuous glucose monitoring in the ICU setting, as well as the benefits delivered by the OptiScanner 5000 as compared to traditional manual monitoring technologies.  The company expects these studies to be completed in the coming months.

As part of preparations for the U.S. commercial launch, OptiScan's expanding platform technology will be highlighted in a presentation at the 39^th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (ISICEM) being held this week in Brussels, Belgium.  Grant V. Bochicchio, M.D., M.P.H., Chief of Acute and Critical Care Surgery, Harry Edison Professor of Surgery, Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, will deliver a presentation during the conference's "Lactate Revisited" session entitled, "In Sepsis," in which he will discuss the importance of continuous monitoring of lactate in critical care patients, particularly those at risk for, or with, sepsis.  This presentation will include clinical data from OptiScan's 200-patient, multi-center MANAGE IDE study evaluating the OptiScanner platform's ability to continuously measure trending lactate levels in critically ill patients.  Key points of Dr. Bochicchio's discussion will include:

• Lactate is a widely accepted marker for mortality in critically ill patients, particularly those at risk for, or with, sepsis.
• Currently, many hospitals have difficulty obtaining baseline and follow-up lactate readings which are essential for meeting sepsis treatment guidelines. This is largely due to current labor-intensive monitoring technologies that require special handling of samples at central laboratories.
• Trending lactate levels in critically ill patients can serve as an important tool for the early diagnosis of tissue hypoperfusion and sepsis, as well as a guide for resuscitation. However, access to trending lactate levels requires automated bedside monitoring with readings available at least hourly or more frequently.
• Clinical data from the MANAGE IDE study demonstrated that the OptiScanner platform is able to provide trending lactate levels at the bedside of critically ill patients every 15 minutes.

"The clear correlation between lactate and mortality is broadly understood in the care of patients with sepsis, as well as those critically ill patients at risk for developing sepsis.  However, current lactate monitoring practices and technologies limit a physician's access to timely lactate readings.  Presently, it is virtually impossible to access a series of trending lactate measures which can be used as a tool for the early diagnosis of tissue hypoperfusion and an end point for resuscitation," said Dr. Bochicchio.  "With the OptiScanner platform, we see for the first time that an automated, bedside monitoring technology can meet physicians' needs in this area, providing timely, trending lactate information right at the patient's bedside without requiring additional workload for the nursing staff."

"The presentation being made at ISICEM provides the latest evidence of the potential for the OptiScanner platform to transform the treatment of critically ill patients by offering automated bedside monitoring of key analytes.  We believe that this type of rigorous scientific support will prove valuable in driving physician acceptance and facilitate adoption as part of our U.S. commercial launch efforts," said Mr. Vance.  "Driven by this scientific validation, we are continuing to strategically expand the OptiScanner platform to allow for monitoring of multiple critical analytes using the same microsample of blood. These efforts, which include the addition of lactate and Scv0₂, are all driven by our fundamental commitment to providing critical care physicians with the clinical insight necessary to optimize care for their most vulnerable patients."

About OptiScan Biomedical

OptiScan Biomedical Corporation has developed an innovative monitoring platform for use in hospital intensive care units (ICUs) to support clinicians in detecting changes more rapidly in critically ill patients, enabling more timely intervention. The OptiScanner^® platform is presently focused on delivering automated bedside glucose monitoring to inform clinicians' decision-making and maintain a user-defined target glucose range.

The company's lead product, the OptiScanner 5000, is a first-of-its-kind automated, bedside glucose monitoring system that measures values directly from plasma using spectroscopy technology without the need for calibration.  The system prominently displays trending glucose data with updates every 15 minutes to help manage patients' glucose levels within an optimum target range.

To meet the complex monitoring needs of critically ill patients, OptiScan Biomedical is expanding the capabilities of the OptiScanner platform technology to detect additional metabolic and hemodynamic analytes within the same blood sample, which will provide valuable trending data about the condition of a critically ill patient.

For more information visit: www.optiscancorp.com

SOURCE OptiScan Biomedical Corporation