Medilink member Zilico Ltd has secured further funding to continue the development of its pioneering technology that offers a quicker, more accurate detection of cervical cancer in real time; removing several weeks of waiting for a diagnosis.
The successful funding round follows Zilico’s completion of the Investing in Health programme managed by Grant Thornton. The programme gives healthcare technology companies in Yorkshire the knowledge, advice, tools and resources needed to access equity funding from national and international investors. Managed by a consortium of finance and healthcare experts, it also gives advice to companies looking at ways of raising other types of finance such as bank debt, asset based lending and sales finance.
Zilico’s current investors include Exomedica Limited, Fusion IP plc, Viking Fund, STH NHS Trust and Medipex Limited. Sameer Kothari, CEO of Zilico, said: “We are very pleased to secure this new round of funding as it allows us to further progress our development towards a product launch for 2011. I believe it is the strength of our proposition that has enabled Zilico to bring on board a new investor especially after the 2009 global downturn in the investment market.
“Going through the Investing in Health programme gave us confidence in our investment proposition and the team provided constructive feedback on our presentation. It also opened up new networks for us and brought us some very useful new investor contacts.”
Lisa Ward, manager at Grant Thornton, said: “We could see the potential of Zilico’s technology as soon as we started working with them so we’re delighted they have secured this latest round of funding. Half a million women are diagnosed with the disease each year and with the current cervical cancer screening and diagnostic market worth around $2.1 billion, companies such as Zilico are well placed to make a real impact on the cancer statistics.”
The Investing in Health programme forms part of Yorkshire Forward’s ongoing strategy to support the development of the healthcare technologies industry in Yorkshire and Humber.
Interim data from one of the company’s on-going multi-centre clinical trials aimed at the colposcopy, or referral market, is very encouraging the company is on track to launch its first product in 2011.
Visit
www.investinginhealth.co.uk to find out more about the programme. To learn more about Zilico Limited, visit
www.zilico.co.uk