Tel Aviv, Israel-based Sight Diagnostics, which makes a complete blood count (CBC) analyzer only requiring two drops of blood, announced Wednesday that it had raised $71 million in a Series D funding round.
The investment comes from investors such as Koch Disruptive Technologies, Longliv Ventures and OurCrowd, an equity crowdfunding platform. The money will be used to enter key markets for the Sight Olo analyzer, which was cleared by the FDA in December 2019.
“We have a specific focus on the U.S market and are planning to ramp up commercialization as allowed by FDA 510(k) clearance,” wrote Yossi Pollak, the company’s CEO in an email response to questions that was forwarded by a representative. “Sight OLO is also CE Marked so we can commercialize in the EU and in countries where the CE Mark is accepted. We recently received TGA approval in Australia to be able to extend our commercial footprint there, and we’ll continue to expand our reach globally to seek clearance in additional markets.”
He added that in the U.S., the device is being used in hospitals as well as other healthcare entities that are CLIA certified for moderately complex settings. Those include oncology infusion clinics, urgent care centers, and other care providers with the appropriate certification.
Sight’s technology is aided by computer vision – hence the name, Sight Diagnostics. The company takes more than 1000 images of blood samples and then uses computer vision and deep learning algorithms to measure and classify the different components of blood. So far in the U.S., the technology doesn’t have the clearance to be used at the point-of-care, which it does in Europe but expect that to change soon.
“We are in the process of preparing for the application for a CLIA Waiver from the FDA to be able to deploy Sight OLO at the point-of-care,” Pollak said.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The technology which provides lab-grade results within 10 minutes based on either a fingerprick-drawn blood sample or venous draw so impressed Longliv Ventures that the company doubled down on its initial investment.
“This is our follow-on investment in Sight Diagnostics, which is now ready to fully commercialize its ground-breaking technology for CBC,” said Dr. Dan Eldar, executive director of Longliv Ventures, in a Sight Diagnostics news release. “We are also excited about the promise of Sight’s computer vision and artificial intelligence capabilities to revolutionize diagnostics in additional areas of hematology and bring about unprecedented rapid and accurate results in a variety of clinical settings.”
The complete blood count test –which calculates and characterizes the number of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets in a patient’s blood sample – is one of the most routine tests prescribed. And many have been chasing the dream – some fraudulently, others not — of taking on the hegemony of behemoths like Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp with a fast, accurate and cheap alternative.
With this new cash infusion, Sight Diagnostics founded in 2011, has raised $124 million in total.
Photo: freedigitalphotos user Salvatore Vuono
