Rheonix raises $14M for manufacturing and 2014 product launch

ITHACA — Rheonix, Inc., an Ithaca–based developer of automated molecular-testing products, today announced it has raised $14 million to complete a manufacturing build-out and to help launch its first commercial product.

 

The company raised its funding through a combination of debt and equity investments, Rheonix said in a news release.

 

The firm will use the money to expand its facilities and systems to fulfill Rheonix’s joint-development agreement with Carlsbad, Calif.–based Life Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ: LIFE).

 

Rheonix will also target the funding for the commercialization of its first clinical, molecular-diagnostic product offering, the firm said.

 

The Rheonix expansion includes a remodeling of its existing space and the addition of a new headquarters in Ithaca, it added.

 

The new location will house the newly formed Rheonix Innovation Center, where employees will pursue practical applications for the company’s technology through internal and external collaborations, the firm said.

 

The company will renovate its existing space to support scaled-up manufacturing capability and capacity as production begins for the Rheonix Card, a low-cost, high-margin, disposable cartridge capable of automated molecular diagnostic testing.

 

Rheonix is designating the remaining funds to complete the company’s first submission to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

 

The company anticipates its first registration in the second half of 2014.

 

Over the past several months, Rheonix has positioned itself to address the “market gap” that is developing in the “sample-to-answer molecular-diagnostics market,” Tony Eisenhut, president of Rheonix, said in the news release.

 

“This funding is the latest validation of the work we have done, and the need that still exists, to address the major challenges of panel testing, workforce shortages and clinical-reimbursement pressures,” Eisenhut said.

 

Cayuga Venture Fund and Rand Capital SBIC Inc., a subsidiary of Rand Capital Corp. (NASDAQ: RAND), led this round of funding, the firm said.

 

“Rheonix is uniquely positioned to address the confluence of forces impacting the clinical diagnostic market, including the need for information versus data, the need to automate higher-volume assays, and the need for a cost-effective consumable that can be used across the full breadth of the molecular diagnostic market,” Allen (Pete) Grum, president and CEO of Rand Capital, said in the news release.

 

Rand believes Rheonix is “poised for rapid growth,” Grum added.

   

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com