Merck Leads $10M Funding of HIV Diagnostics Firm Daktari

Image licensed by Depositphotos.com/Christian Delbert.

Cambridge, MA-based Daktari Diagnostics announced in late December that it has raised $10 million in financing from a syndicate of private and venture firms. The funding round was led by Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, a unit of Whitehouse Station, NJ-based Merck (NYSE: [[ticker:MRK]]). Also participating in this funding round were Daktari’s existing investors, Norwich Ventures and the Partners Innovation Fund.

Daktari’s technology can analyze small quantities of blood and other fluids. The company developed a cell-counting system that’s portable and doesn’t require the lenses, cameras, or filters commonly used in other diagnostics systems. The company says it will use the recent funding to market its first products, which are designed to monitor patients with HIV.

Merck Global Health Innovation Fund was founded in 2010. According to its website, the $250 million fund fosters startups in six key areas, including health informatics and analytics, heath intervention, and “health productivity enablers.”

Author: Arlene Weintraub

Arlene is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences and technology. She was previously a senior health writer based out of the New York City headquarters of BusinessWeek, where she wrote hundreds of articles that explored both the science and business of health. Her freelance pieces have been published in USA Today, US News & World Report, Technology Review, and other media outlets. Arlene has won awards from the New York Press Club, the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Foundation for Biomedical Research, and the American Society of Business Publication Editors. Her book about the anti-aging industry, Selling the Fountain of Youth, was published by Basic Books in September 2010.