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03/29/2024

01/09/2013

Investor search for Molecular Diagnostics Company started - Diagnostics Company SIRS-Lab insolvent

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The German Biotechnology company SIRS-Lab requested the opening of insolvency proceedings. The company, founded ten years ago, develops molecular diagnostic technologies for life-threatening infections as sepsis, also known as blood poisoning. Sepsis claims 250.000 victims per year in the USA alone. SIRS-Lab has developed a new diagnostic system, which detects pathogens in a fast and reliable way and therefore allows an efficient therapy. The test-system is close before marketability. As the provisional insolvency administrator, Rolf Rattunde leads the Jena based company with all 30 employees and is searching for investors.

At the end of December, SIRS-Lab requested the opening of insolvency proceedings because the public and private shareholders could not agree upon a further funding. On January 07, the District Court of Gera, Germany, appointed lawyer Rolf Rattunde from Leonhardt Rechtsanwälte Erfurt, as provisional insolvency administrator.

"SIRS-Lab has developed an innovative diagnostic technology for sepsis, also known as blood poisoning. At the end of last year, a current clinical study about the efficiency of the new pathogen test could successfully be finished. In order to bring the test on the market, further investment, on which the current shareholders cannot agree upon, is necessary. At short notice, we therefore are searching for investors for this very interesting diagnostics company. The first meetings with management and employees made me very confident to proceed with the company. The salaries of the 30 SIRS-Lab employees are currently secured through the insolvency compensation payment," comments Prof. Rolf Rattunde from Leonhardt Rechtsanwälte Erfurt.

In addition to novel test systems for the early detection of life-threatening infections, SIRS-Lab develops and commercializes technologies to improve the performance of molecular tests in many application fields. That includes a patented technology to raise the sensitivity of pathogen assays, which are used in bloodstream infections.

In sepsis, the immune system overreacts to pathogens entering the blood stream and can lead to a collapse of one or many organs. Worldwide, more than 1400 people die from sepsis daily. It is the main cause of death in hospitals and causes by far the highest costs in intensive care. Crucial for the survival of the patient is a fast and targeted antibiotic therapy on the basis of information about the causative pathogen. The current standard methods to detect pathogens rely on blood cultures, which deliver results only after two or three days and only in 15 percent of all sepsis cases. With the molecular test developed by SIRS-Lab, pathogens and resistances can be precisely detected within seven hours. With this information, the treatment can be optimized and a therapy can be initiated within the necessary time window. Treatment times and costs are reduced and the further spread of multi-resistant pathogens can be prevented. The recruitment of 1000 patients in a comprehensive clinical trial in 13 German centers was successfully completed at the end of 2012.

SIRS-Lab was awarded with the central German innovation award in 2008 and with a European molecular Diagnostics award in 2009.

Quelle: SIRS-Lab GmbH