DermaSensor, a Miami startup that wants to make it easier for primary care physicians to detect skin cancer, received a $10 million capital injection to fund its U.S. launch.
The company's device will be the only U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved automatic skin cancer detection tool on the market that uses imaging or optical technology.
"This could provide major public health benefits since skin cancer is the most common cancer and there are more primary care physicians than any other specialty," DermaSensor CEO Cody Simmons said in a statement.
The startup is also hiring ahead of its commercial launch, including for roles like chief commercial officer and director of medical affairs.
The new financing round was led by existing investor Ceros Capital Markets. DermaSensor has raised more than $34 million since its founding in 2009.
DermaSensor's handheld, point-and-click device can capture cellular level information from skin lesions to check patient for skin cancer in seconds. Primary care physicians can assess the data and provide a result to patients without having to go through a lab or specialist physician.
An independent study of 126 skin cancers found that DermaSensor's point-and-click machine, in development for three years, could alert physicians to the presence of melanoma 100% of the time and non-melanoma skin cancer 94% of the time. In another recent study conducted by 10 dermatology study centers globally – including the Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center in Boston – the study determined DermaSensor's device is effective at detecting melanoma while ruling out benign lesions.
"We have also now successfully completed three of the largest prospective clinical validation and clinical utility studies ever done for regulatory clearance for any kind of skin cancer detection tool,” Simons said.
For more stories like this one, sign up for Miami Inno newsletters from the South Florida Business Journal and the American Inno network.
