Great Basin Corporation Secures $9.5 Million in Series B Funding

New funding to expedite product development efforts and continued expansion of global sales

SALT LAKE CITY, January 7, 2013-- Great Basin Corporation, a privately held molecular diagnostics company developing sample-to-result solutions, announced today it has raised $9.5 million in Series B funding. The new round is led by returning private investors, and will be used to expand manufacturing, fund research and development—including product menu expansion and the development of the company’s next-generation Portrait Analyzer—and to expand global commercialization efforts.

The company received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its first product, a molecular diagnostic test for toxigenic Clostridium difficile (C. diff)—one of the most common and deadly hospital-acquired infections—at the beginning of May, and launched sales of the platform in November 2012.

“There is a critical need in the healthcare industry for an information-rich, low-cost test platform that offers a significantly simplified workflow. Great Basin is the first company to deliver on all three of those requirements and the response from clinicians to our platform has been tremendous,” said Ryan Ashton, president and CEO of Great Basin Corporation. “Our Series B is a testament to the confidence of our current investors in our platform and technology. We are already ahead of plan on sales and this funding will allow us to further advance our pipeline and expand commercial operations to introduce additional assays to market.”

Specifically, this new round of funding will allow Great Basin to expedite menu expansion, including three clinical trials in the next 12 months. Great Basin intends to begin clinical trials for its Staph ID/R assay in the first quarter of this year. The Great Basin Staph ID/R assay is an automated DNA multiplex that can identify major pathogenic strains of Staphylococcus to the species level as well as the presence or absence of the methicillin-resistance determinant gene, mecA. Staphylococcal infections are one of the leading causes of hospital-acquired infections worldwide, and up to 60 percent of all staphylococcal infections are methicillin resistant (MRSA).

Great Basin’s sample-to-result system allows for more accurate and information-rich detection of infectious diseases, allowing providers to diagnose and define a clear treatment path sooner for improved patient outcomes, shorter hospital stays and significant cost savings. The company’s goal is to deliver assays that can be performed in a CLIA-rated waived or moderately complex laboratory at a lower cost than other molecular diagnostic solutions.

About Great Basin Corporation

Great Basin Corporation is a privately held molecular diagnostics company that commercializes breakthrough chip-based technologies. The company is dedicated to the development of simple, yet powerful, sample-to-result technology and products that provide fast, multiple-pathogen diagnoses of infectious diseases. By providing more diagnostic data per sample, healthcare providers are able to treat patients with the right medication sooner, improving outcomes and reducing costs. The company’s vision is to make molecular diagnostic testing so simple and cost-effective that every patient will be tested for every serious infection, reducing misdiagnoses and significantly limiting the spread of infectious disease. More information can be found on the company’s website at www.gbscience.com.

Contact:
Great Basin Corporation
Sandra Nielsen, 801-990-1055
snielsen@gbscience.com
or
Edelman
Jennifer Chan, 415-229-7650
jennifer.chan@edelman.com

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