Definiens AG, one of the major players in the fast-growing market for digital pathology, raised $12.8 million in additional capital funding. The company, based in Munich, Germany, manufacturers systems for digital image analysis. Definiens stated that the new funds will be used for “commercial expansion of its current business and to develop and commercialize innovative products for clinical digital pathology.”
MORE ON: Definiens
Definiens has placed its digital pathology systems in most of the major pharmaceutical companies, where a growing application is to support development of tissue-based diagnostic biomarkers. Definiens’ systems are also finding acceptance in clinical settings. Pathologists may be interested to learn that one founder of Definiens (back in 1994 when it was called Delphi2 Creative Technologies) was Nobel laureate Gerd Binnig. In 1986, he and Heinrich Rohrer shared one-half the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986 for their design of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM).
TRANSITIONS
- David L. Schultz retired as President and CEO of Sonic Healthcare USA, Inc., at the end of August. In 1989, Schulz was a co-founder of Clinical Pathology Laboratories, Inc., and served as its CEO through its acquisition by Sonic Healthcare, Ltd. in 2005.
- Freedom Imaging Systems of Ann Arbor, Michigan has named Dennis Hodges as Vice President, Healthcare Sales. Hodges has held executive positions with the Michigan Co-Tenancy Laboratory, Warde Medical Laboratories, and the Nichols Institute.
- Well-known pathologist Jeffery A. Kant, M.D., Ph.D., FCAP, FAAAS, age 65, died September 29, 2012. He was Professor of Pathology and Human Genetics at UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Kant was among the founders of the Association of Molecular Pathology and served as its first president. Respected for his expertise in molecular test utilization and coding, he served at the national level in a number of roles for the College of American Pathologists and other organizations.
Dark Daily Update
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…separate studies by Fox Chase Cancer Center and Aon Hewitt that found patients were reluctant to pay much money out-of-pocket for expensive genetic tests. This does not bode well for labs when billing these patients.
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