Novian Health pulled in an $11 million Series A funding round that will help fuel an international clinical trial testing its laser therapy breast cancer treatment.
The Pennsylvania outfit iNetworks led the preferred share financing, which also included previous and other new investors, according to the company.
Novian, which has operations in Chicago, IL, and Evry, France, said the money will help conduct multicenter testing of its Novilase Interstitial Laser Therapy Device to treat breast cancer at sites in the U.S., Britain and France. Enrollment is already under way in the U.S., and plans call for using the device in the trial to ablate (destroy) early stage breast cancer tumors less than 2 centimeters in size. They'll then use MRI and ultrasound to detect any remaining tumor and perform lumpectomies to remove what is left. This test will be watched closely, as successful early breast cancer detection and treatment is a preferable way to combat the disease. Also, there are few devices on the market specific to breast cancer treatment.
Novian lists some details of the multicenter study on clinicaltrials.gov. About 60 patients will be enrolled in the study, according to the company's posting, which had a technical start data of April 2012 and should run through at least April 2013. The clinical trial will be conducted, in part, at medical centers in Denver, CO; Oklahoma City, OK; Bartlett, IL; and Paris, France.
Right now, Novilase has FDA clearance to treat benign breast growths.
- read the release
- here's more at clinicaltrials.gov