New Leaf Venture Partners (NLV Partners) today announced the closing of the second tranche of a $26 million investment in Oxford Immunotec Ltd., a leading manufacturer and marketer of T cell-based diagnostic tests.Oxford Immunotec have managed to collect a fair swag of credentialed investors, from their website it appears that Clarus Ventures, Wellington Partners, DFJ Esprit, Dow Chemical, SPARK Ventures and Top Technology Ventures are now to be joined by Kaiser Permanente Ventures and New Leaf Venture Partners. I guess they are all excited by the market potential
In the U.S., there are an estimated 15 million individuals infected with latent TB, and an estimated 17 million tests for latent TB are performed each yearA quick google reveals that Oxford Immunotec have had several successful capital raisings;
2003 --> £2.5M
2005 --> £7M
2007 --> £40M
which totals £49.5M, or $US76M. Combined with the recent raising of $26M giving a Grand Total of $US102M which then begs the question, what is the purpose of all this cash?
...The company will use the funds for the US launch of its T-SPOT.TB tuberculosis blood test.I guess that at some time you will have to make a return on your investment
We have approval in the EU and in many other countries further afield and we have strong prospects for the use of our patented technology for the diagnosis of other infectious diseases. We are excited to be working with Prelude who is helping us move closer to achieving profitability..That statement was made in 2005 and when you consider their estimate of the size of the market you have to wonder just how long, if ever, it will take OI to return a profit on the investment.
