Drug verification company Centice raises $2.3M

Drug and chemicals analysis company Centice has raised $2.3 million that the company will use […]

Drug and chemicals analysis company Centice has raised $2.3 million that the company will use to bring its drug identification and verification technology into hospital and law enforcement applications.

According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Morrisville, North Carolina-based Centice has raised $2.3 million in a round that targets $4 million. Centice’s venture capital backers include the Aurora Funds and Novak Biddle Venture Partners. Centice has raised more than $25 million from venture capital investors.

Centice was founded in 2004 based on technology originally developed at Duke University. The company’s computational sensor technology uses Raman spectroscopy, a technique of identifying a sample by reading its unique light signature. Centice developed the technology into a device called PassRx that pharmacists can use to verify that the drug in a pill bottle is the drug that was prescribed to the patient. The technology was pitched as a way to reduce prescription errors. While the technology worked, pharmacy adoption has been slow.

Centice last year started a strategy shift to broaden its technology’s applications. In hospitals, the company says its technology can be used for identifying prescription medication in emergency rooms and patient admission areas, reconciling medication and reducing the time to treatment for patients. Law enforcement is another target market. The company announced in March it was in a beta test with Cherokee Multi-Agency Narcotics Squad in Canton, Georgia, which used Centice’s portable Pinpoint Rx system to identify controlled substances and prescription drugs in the field.

“We are very excited about our continuing efforts to provide a unique solution for emergency room medication reconciliation with Pinpoint Rx,” Centice CEO Scott Albert said in a statement. “This new round is a testament to not only our current success, but our future plans in the law enforcement market.”

In the law enforcement space, Centice will compete against another Morrisville startup company. NarTest has commercialized a portable drug analysis system that is already in use by 16 law enforcement agencies. NarTest’s system uses a different kind of light technology called spectral fluoresence signatures to identify drugs.

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