Devices & Diagnostics

MRI-guided radiotherapy firm ViewRay gets $10M in new funding

A company that’s developing MRI-based technology to deliver radiation therapy to cancer patients has secured […]

A company that’s developing MRI-based technology to deliver radiation therapy to cancer patients has secured $10 million in new investment funding.

Oakwood Village, Ohio-based ViewRay‘s $10.3 million fundraise comes from existing investors, according to a document filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Investors listed in the document include Kearny Venture Partners, OrbiMed Advisors, Fidelity Bioscience, Aisling Capital and Siemens. All of those investors participated in a $20 million series C round that ViewRay announced in August 2010.

The new funding was sourced from 15 investors and came in the form of convertible notes.

It’s unclear whether the new funding is the beginning of a formal series D round, or just some cash to tide the company over until it begins commercializing its radiation therapy system.

ViewRay officials didn’t immediately return a call.

ViewRay says its technology helps doctors see exactly where radiation is being delivered to a cancer patient’s body, unlike existing technology, which doesn’t account for the movement of internal organs. That movement can cause radiation to be delivered to healthy issue and lead to harmful side effects. The company’s technology aims to solve that problem by providing continuous soft-tissue imaging for more accurate delivery of radiation therapy.

In February, the company received U.S. regulatory clearance for its treatment planning and delivery software. The company hasn’t yet received clearance on its integrated system, which would allow ViewRay to begin selling it for clinical use. The system is currently available only for nonhuman research.

In March, the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center in Madison became one of the first oncology research centers to acquire ViewRay’s radiotherapy system.

ViewRay’s technology was invented by a radiation oncology researcher from the University of Florida. The company moved to Oakwood Village in suburban Cleveland from Florida in 2008, lured both by the region’s imaging talent and tax incentives. The state gave the company job-creation tax credits worth about $537,000 over the subsequent 10 years.

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