Dipankar Ganguly
San Jose, CA (USA)
Role(s):
C-Level Executive (CEO, CFO, etc.)
BioTelligent
Find More Startups
Startup
Location:
San Jose
Industry:
Bio-Technology
Year Founded:
2004
Number Employees:
1-10 people
Description:
We are developing an exciting disposable needle-based medical product that harnesses the best of today’s optical and processing technologies to accurately diagnose breast cancer without requiring an MD to pore over biopsy slides or X-ray films. Not only that our product will provide this diagnosis within minutes…right there in the doctor’s office without requiring any tissue removal.
The current breast cancer diagnosis process consists of screening with mammography, diagnostic evaluation with a 20-gauge fine needle aspiration needle followed by confirmation with core biopsy. The problem is that the mammography/FNA combination is not very accurate and results in almost 85% of the 1.5 billion biopsies done every year to turn out benign. This translates to over 1 million women being subjected to the trauma of biopsies needlessly every year and an annual waste of over $1 billion.
Our product will replace FNA’s as a more cost-effective, accurate and easier to use triage into biopsy and eventually replace biopsies altogether. We estimate that the market for FNA replacement alone is over $1b a year with another $1b for biopsy replacement.
We have completed a 200 patient pilot study that shows cancer detection accuracy similar to that for core biopsy and are seeking $1m investment immediately and another $6.5 M within 12 months to expand clinical trials and finalize the product.