BRITISH COLUMBIA, Canada--LED Medical Diagnostics Inc., a Vancouver-based medical device company, recently closed a USD $6 million financing round through Integral Wealth Securities Limited.
The company will use these funds to aggressively market and distribute its FDA (510k) cleared VELscope (Visually Enhanced Lesion Scope) oral mucosal examination device in the United States and Canadian dental markets through its wholly-owned subsidiary, LED Dental Inc.
VELscope is a clinically-proven adjunctive screening device that utilizes a narrow band of blue light and specialized filtering technology to help dental professionals evaluate oral mucosa for abnormal areas of concern, such as potentially cancerous lesions that may not be apparent under white light.
In addition, this round of funding will enable LED Medical to accelerate its efforts to integrate the use of VELscope into the oral hygiene and oral pathology curricula of leading dental schools throughout North America.
According to Peter Whitehead, founder and director of LED Medical Diagnostics and LED Dental, "This oversubscribed round of financing was a resoundingly strong vote of confidence by the investment community for our proprietary Direct Tissue Fluorescence Visualization Technology and the potential it has to help save lives."
VELscope was proven effective in clinical trials conducted by the BC Cancer Agency and financed in part by over $50 million in grants from the
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, part of the National Institutes of Health, a U.S. government-funded agency.
"VELscope's improved real-time visual detection capability can significantly enhance the overall efficacy of oral screening programs, which enables the treatment of cancerous lesions earlier in the disease process," explained Whitehead. "This is significant because 50% of patients diagnosed with oral cancer are expected to die within 5 years.1 But if caught early, 90% of oral cancer cases are survivable."
