Inverness Acquires Majority Stake in Diamics

Diamics, a Novato, CA-based company that develops molecular-based cancer screening and diagnostic systems, has secured a $6 million equity investment from Inverness Medical Innovations. The deal gives Inverness, a leading diagnostics company specializing in women’s health, 51% of the privately held firm.

Under the terms of the agreement, Inverness will help drive commercialization of Diamics’ products. It will provide strategic and hands-on assistance with assay development, product design, and manufacturing and distribution.

Diamics is developing products to improve the effectiveness of cervical cancer screening and to make the procedure less painful. Its FDA-cleared CerCol Cervical Cancer Collection System collects cellular and fractional histological material from the entire cervix with a single, soft-tipped device. The system is used together with Diamics’ Pap-Map system, which provides a “map” of the collected sample, to help guide physicians’ subsequent decisions about colposcopy and biopsy procedures.

Diamics’ point-of-care offering, C-Map, is in pre-clinical trials. The goal with C-Map is to create a more accurate and less costly method of screening women for precancerous conditions of the uterine cervix. The system uses automation to identify abnormalities as expressed within the context of normal cellular morphology and eliminates the need for a cell by cell analysis, yielding greater sensitivity and specificity than cytology.

“We are delighted that Inverness has acknowledged the progress of the company and the value of our novel technologies focused on improving cervical cancer screening,” said Diamics CEO Peter Gombrich, in a statement.