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STC Technologies, Inc. Announces $9.1 Million in Equity Financing HealthCare Ventures and Safeguard Scientifics Lead Financing Effort
PR Newswire - June 16, 1999 13:11
LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- STC Technologies, Inc., a leading developer, manufacturer, and marketer of proprietary immunodiagnostic products and technologies, today announced $9.1 million in institutional financing. The equity financing was provided by HealthCare Ventures (HCV) of Princeton, N.J., Pennsylvania Early Stage Partners (PA-ESP), an affiliated fund of Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE: SFE) of Wayne, PA, and STC's existing private equity investors.
STC also announced that Harold Werner and William Crouse of HCV and Michael Bolton of PA-ESP have joined its board of directors.
"After 11 years of sweat equity, cash flow from operations, and angel investors, it is exciting to complete our first round of institutional financing with HCV and PA-ESP," said Mike Gausling, President of STC.
"We will use these funds to accelerate the commercialization of our Up- Converting Phosphor Technology (UPT), to support the introduction of our Intercept(R) Drugs of Abuse product line, and for possible acquisitions," Gausling said.
In 1995, STC entered into an exclusive worldwide patent, patent application, and trade-secret licenses for UPT for use in all diagnostic applications; STC has expended more than $6.3 million to develop UPT to date. UPT is based on the use of a unique patented particle technology.
STC believes that UPT overcomes some of the limitations of other in vitro diagnostic (IVD) detection methods with features not commercially obtainable today. When used in conjunction with antibodies or DNA probes, UPT particles produce zero background interference, which dramatically increases the potential sensitivity of any test system. In addition, the particles are stable in a variety of biological specimens, allow simultaneous detection of multiple biological markers, and can be used in miniaturized test platforms.
Sam Niedbala, Ph.D., Chief Science Officer at STC, said, "In collaboration with our research partners, we have demonstrated basic feasibility for UPT in applications such as infectious diseases, cancer, drugs-of-abuse, and DNA. We are excited to rapidly expand our staffing to accelerate the commercialization of UPT and to seek strategic corporate partnerships."
STC's research partners are Leiden University of the Netherlands and SRI International, Menlo Park, CA.
Funding will also be used to support the introduction of STC's Intercept(TM) Drugs of Abuse, a line of laboratory-based, saliva-based drugs- of-abuse tests. STC was the first, and remains the only, company to receive clearance from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) five panel -- THC, cocaine, opiates, amphetamines/methamphetamine, and PCP (NIDA-5) in combination with the OraSure(R) oral specimen collection device. Last year, STC licensed the OraSure(R) device from Epitope, Inc., Beaverton, Ore. (Nasdaq: EPTO) for North America and Europe. STC recently signed an exclusive distribution and testing agreement with LabOne (Nasdaq: LABS) of Lenexa, Kan., the leading oral-fluid testing laboratory in the United States, to offer saliva-based testing to work site and criminal justice markets in early 2000.
About the Investment Firms
HealthCare Ventures
HealthCare Ventures is one of the world's largest venture capital funds
devoted exclusively to the healthcare industry. HCV's strategy is to create
companies that will be a major source of leading-edge products and
technologies for the pharmaceutical industry. Its portfolio includes dozens
of successful corporate alliances with many of the world's largest
pharmaceutical firms including SmithKline Beecham, Hoffmann-LaRoche,
Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novartis, Aventis, Merck, Glaxo, American Home Products,
and Johnson & Johnson.
PA-ESP, a Safeguard Scientifics affiliated fund
PA-ESP is a Safeguard fund that invests in early stage and catalyst opportunities exclusively in Pennsylvania. Safeguard Scientifics works closely with its partnership companies providing numerous operational and developmental services to build value in preparation for public rights offerings and beyond. The company's partnerships include privately-held and public companies.
New board members
Harold Werner, a founder of HealthCare Ventures, was formerly director of new ventures for Johnson & Johnson Development Corp. Before joining HealthCare Ventures, Bill Crouse was worldwide president of Ortho Diagnostic Systems and a vice president of Johnson & Johnson International. Michael Bolton is senior vice president of Safeguard Scientifics and managing director of Pennsylvania Early Stage Partners.
The three new members join existing board members: Michael J. Caruso, president of M.J. Caruso and Associates, Inc. in Bethlehem, Pa.; Jeffrey P. Libson, a partner in the law firm of Pepper Hamilton, LLP in Philadelphia; and STC's three founders, Mike Gausling, Sam Niedbala, Ph.D., and William M. Hinchey, executive vice president of sales and marketing.
STC is a privately-held company that develops, manufactures, and markets proprietary clinical diagnostic tests and medical devices for use in clinical labs, physicians' offices, and work site testing. Since its founding in 1987, STC twice has been named to Inc. magazine's list of the 500 fastest growing privately held companies in America.
SOURCE STC Technologies, Inc.
/CONTACT: Mike Gausling, President & CEO, or Rich Hooper, CFO,
610-882-1820, of STC Technologies/
/Web site: stctech.com
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