Despite concern on Wall Street last week, biotech startups continue to draw big money from financial firms. The $15 million raised by the Alexandria-based Oxford Finance for RF Surgical Systems makes it pretty clear the biotech space isn't going away anytime soon. Oxford actually specializes in financing healthcare and life science companies and was involved in a couple of other multimillion dollar rounds this week.
RF Surgical Systems is actually based in California but won the interest of Oxford thanks to its development of new medical technology that basically helps make sure surgeons don't leave anything in your body when they are done operating. Usually those are surgical sponges, hard to see through all the blood but capable of causing real harm if left inside the body.
"RF Surgical Systems has developed a highly valued and widely used sponge detection product that protects patients undergoing surgical procedures," said Christopher Herr, Oxford Finance's managing director in a release. "The company has been extremely successful with its RF Assure Detection System™, and Oxford is pleased to provide financing to support the worldwide deployment of this groundbreaking technology."
$15 million may seem like a lot, but Oxford is known for giving out big loans and helping keep small biotech companies afloat through the research and development phase. Some of the loans have reached the $50 million. Since opening about twenty years ago, they've given more than $2 billion.
"RF Surgical has excelled at establishing an industry-leading technology that provides automatic, highly reliable, in-vivo detection capability to help prevent retained surgical sponges," said John Buhler, CEO of RF Surgical Systems. "We are looking forward to leveraging our partnership with Oxford Finance to further propel our business through its next phases of market growth."
Check out RF Surgical Systems tool for keeping surgeons from accidentally leaving things in the body in the video below.
