News Article

Madison biotech company Lucigen raises $2 million: Company is working to develop diagnostic tests for Ebola, other infectious diseases
Date: Jan 19, 2015
Source: Milwaukee Journal ( click here to go to the source)

Featured firm in this article: Lucigen Corporation of Middleton, WI



Lucigen Corp., a Madison biotech company, has raised nearly $2 million of funding from outside investors, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Lucigen is developing molecular diagnostic tests for Ebola and other infectious diseases. The company raised the money from existing shareholders and angel investors, said Ralph Kauten, who became Lucigen's chief executive officer in October. Kauten, who is also CEO of Quintessence Biosciences, previously was in high-level positions at a number of successful biotech companies in Madison, including Promega Corp., PanVera and Mirus Bio.

Lucigen sells a catalog of several hundred products for research use, Kauten said. The company's effort to develop molecular diagnostic tests is newer.

It hopes to receive emergency use authorization from the FDA to market a faster, easier-to-use Ebola test by mid-2015, Kauten said. Lucigen is also developing its own platform, called ClariLight, which will have instruments, collection modules and other equipment that can be used for rapid DNA testing.

"We've got this research products unit that is profitable and quite successful; the diagnostics unit is not profitable, but we're developing a game-changing platform for diagnosis," Kauten said.