Specific Diagnostics Receives $12.5M Investment

Specific Diagnostics today announced an investment of $12.5M by Telegraph Hill Partners (THP), a venture capital and growth equity firm focused on building leading life science and healthcare companies. The funding will support the commercialization of Specific's Reveal™ platform, which will provide a rapid, accurate antibiotic susceptibility test critical to the treatment of deadly drug resistant infections.

Specific's system provides antibiotic susceptibility results in hours instead of days using a labor- saving bench top instrument and cost-effective proprietary assay consumable. Specific will now progress to clinical studies and prepare Reveal for the market, both in Europe and the United States, bringing clinical microbiology laboratories a low-cost, high-throughput susceptibility test for time-sensitive, life-threatening infections.

"The need for a rapid, effective antibiotic susceptibility test is clear. As disease antibiotic- resistance quickly evolves, patients need faster and more targeted test results so infections can be properly treated quickly from the time that blood culture samples go positive," said Dr. Paul Grossman, Ph.D., J.D. of THP, who is joining Specific's Board of Directors.

"We look forward to partnering with Telegraph Hill to take Specific into its next phase of development. Their team brings years of seasoned successful commercial leadership as well as a deep network and practical insight that will guide us as we bring our products into hospital microbiology labs in Europe and the United States," said Dr. Paul Rhodes, Ph.D., CEO of Specific.

About Specific Diagnostics
Specific has developed in vitro diagnostic systems for the detection and identification of microorganisms while they grow in culture. The company's unique, patented chemical sensor array technology enables cost-effective diagnostic products that simplify workflow and speed time-to-answer. Specific's products utilize sensor arrays to detect growth and quantify antibiotic efficacy with simple, automated instruments and disposables. Accuracies meet those of gold standard methods, but with results obtained fast enough to enable rapid treatment decisions, helping to save patients faced with fast-moving and deadly drug-resistant blood infections. Specific Diagnostics headquarters in Mountain View, CA, with offices in Cambridge, UK. For more information, please visit http://www.specificdx.com.

About Telegraph Hill Partners
Telegraph Hill Partners, founded in 2001 and based in San Francisco, CA, invests in commercial- stage life science, medical technology, and healthcare companies to help them achieve their growth objectives. For more information, visit http://www.telegraphhillpartners.com.