A company which has developed a camera that can spot serious illnesses such as heart disease and cancer has received backing from a VC syndicate.
Petrra Ltd the developer of a new positron emission tomography (PET) camera has received backing by a group led by early-stage business backer Synergis Technologies for an undisclosed amount.
The new PET camera can diagnose heart disease and cancer faster, cheaper and more accurately than other cameras, the company says.
The patented device could stand the company in good stead to make major profits from the healthcare industry; coronary heart disease is the most common cause of death in the UK and treatments cost £1.6bn every year.
Internationally the problem follows a similar pattern, in the US for instance the disease claims the lives of around 500,000 people.
There is also a huge market for cancer treatment which one in three people develop during their lives and where early detection is key to the chances of a patient surviving.
“The Petrra detector provides the capability to separately measure the energy, timing and position of each event detected, which will facilitate the use of advanced data processing techniques when used for the diagnosis of cardiac and cancer related illnesses,” says Ian Buckley-Golder, non executive chairman of Petrra.
“We are very pleased about working with Synergis in future on providing cheaper, more productive and possibly better quality PET images.”
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