Great Basin's $9.5M Series B will support staph Dx trials

Great Basin reeled in $9.5 million in new Series B financing that the company plans to use to use to boost clinical trial efforts for a new DNA staphylococcus diagnostic test. Manufacturing expansion will also gain a crucial boost, thanks to the funding.

The Salt Lake City company isn't disclosing where the new financing comes from, other than to say the cash infusion comes compliments of "returning private investors."

But Great Basin is already raring to go with its new molecular diagnostic test for toxigenic Clostridium difficile (C. difficile), a particularly nasty hospital-acquired infection. Great Basin won FDA clearance in May and just started selling the test in November. Funds will not only help expand manufacturing efforts there, but also provide support for a series of clinical trials involving its new Staphylococcus assay. Three are planned over the next year. Staph infections are also quite damaging, and many are methicillin resistant.

In moving forward, Great Basin is hoping to claim a big stake of the infectious disease diagnostics market. The company touts its technology as being more accurate and cheaper than rivals already in the marketplace. And the company could gain cachet with that selling point, considering that the earlier detection of hospital acquired infections could lead to quicker treatment and save money if a patient can leave the hospital sooner as a result.

Still, plenty of rivals are gearing up for the hospital-acquired-infection Dx space. Quidel ($QDEL) and PrimeraDx, for example, recently gained approvals for their own C. difficile tests and more from many other competitors are likely to show up in months to come.

- read the release

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