Funding allows Maria to enter next stage of development

Micrima has raised further funding towards its development of a breast cancer scanning system. This will allow the next stage of development and commercialisation to take place, with the launch of a seventh generation of the Maria radio wave breast scanning system later this year.

The system uses no ionising radiation and requires no breast compression. In clinical trials in diagnostic clinics it has proven effective at accurately identifying cancer and, according to Micrima, is better than the gold standard in dense tissue. It will also offer new functionality in a density score as well as improvement in accuracy and ergonomics.

Chairman Nick Randall said: “This investment will allow us to move the company into the next phase with a system that has a place in a clinical workflow; there is more exciting functionality to come as soon as clinical data collection can recommence.”

The company raised £1.9m from shareholders, which is being matched by the Future Fund government initiative delivered by the British Business Bank.

New ceo Adrian Waller added: “I first became aware of Micrima four years ago and it has been interesting to see it moving forward and overcoming technical challenges with the development of the latest device. This latest round of funding allows us to take the new system and work on automatically classifying findings using the rich dataset that it produces, which has every opportunity to transform the landscape of breast cancer detection.”

Picture: The Maria radio wave breast scanner has reached its seventh generation.

Published on page 22 of the May 2021 issue of RAD Magazine.