mtm laboratories signs additional tranche of Euro 7 million to its Series C funding

mtm laboratories, a privately held diagnostics company developing, manufacturing and globally commercializing in vitro diagnostics for cervical cancer early detection and diagnosis, today announced the signing for an additional tranche of Euro 7 million to its Series C funding. This addition is a formal expansion of the Company’s last Series C in March 2008 and increases the total for the round to Euro 39 million (USD 57 million) in equity.

This completed Series C financing was led by a new investor to mtm laboratories, Gilde Healthcare Partners from Utrecht, The Netherlands, with a consortium which includes HBM BioVentures, Ltd., HBM BioCapital Invest, Ltd., LBBW Venture Capital GmbH, and mtm and Friends. At the same time, Arthur Franken from Gilde Healthcare Partners will join as a new member of the Supervisory Board.

Bob Silverman, Chief Executive Officer of mtm laboratories, commented:
"This additional tranche will put mtm in a more favourable position to further leverage the clinical and commercial development of additional product lines. We would also like to welcome Arthur Franken to our Supervisory Board - we feel that mtm will benefit extensively from his experience and commitment.”

Arthur Franken, Partner of Gilde Healthcare Partners, added:
“We are delighted to support a very talented and experienced team, and invest prior to a major value inflection point. The products have the potential to be truly differentiating in providing clinically relevant and actionable results in the screening and early diagnosis of cervical cancer.”

mtm plans to use the proceeds of this financing to expand its clinical development activities and to bolster its commercialization efforts, specifically on the Company’s p16^INK4a based CINtec® and Cervatec™ IVD products.

The basis of mtm’s IVD products, the proprietary p16^INK4a biomarker, is strongly over-expressed in pre-cancerous and cancerous cells of the cervix. Screening and diagnostic tools based on this biomarker are developed to improve the accuracy and efficiency for the screening and early diagnosis of cervical cancer. mtm's CINtec^® in vitro diagnostic products focus on the detection of p16^INK4a over-expression in biopsies (CINtec^® Histology) and cervical cytology specimens (CINtec^® Cytology).