Profos Raises €5 Million for Endotoxin and Pathogen Testing Applications

Profos AG, has raised € 5 million in the first closing of its current financing round with investments from Bio Fund Management Ltd. (Helsinki, Finland) and from two of its existing shareholders Danisco Venture A/S (Copenhagen, Denmark) and Capital Stage AG (Hamburg, Germany).

Profos AG is a leading German biotech company engaged in the development of products for the capture and detection of bacteria and bacterial components (endotoxins) based on advanced, proprietary phage-ligand technology. The Profos leading-edge technology has two main areas of immediate application for which product ranges are being rolled-out: Food Safety (Pathogen) Testing and Biopharmaceutical Endotoxin Detection and Removal. In addition, the Company’s patented technology offers future opportunities in certain clinical therapeutic processes and food preservation.

• The Food Safety Testing applications of the technology enable fast and reliable test procedures e.g. the testing of meat, seafood, milk or cheese for pathogenic (disease causing) organisms such as Salmonella and Listeria which are major causes of food poisoning
• In the area of Endotoxins, the technology is applied in the detection and removal of these organic compounds. Endotoxins are important in medicine and pharmacology as they are the major cause of sepsis in humans. The removal of these contaminants from the processes involved in developing and producing biopharmaceutical drugs is essential for the major pharmaceutical companies. With the EndoTrap® product for endotoxin removal Profos addresses the needs of leading manufacturers of biopharmaceutical drugs. There are also significant needs in the research area and Profos supplies EndoTrap® to many universities, research institutes and biotech companies for use in experiments which are highly sensitive to endotoxin contamination.