GE Invests in Noninvasive Continuous Glucose Monitors

GE Capital and GE Healthcare, the financial services and healthcare divisions of the General Electric Company (GE, Fairfield, CT, USA) have announced an investment in C8 MediSensors (San Jose, CA, USA), a privately held developer of noninvasive continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) for diabetic patients.

The investment is being made through the GE healthymagination Fund, an equity fund that invests in highly promising healthcare technology companies, in accordance with GE Healthcare’s expanding focus on disease management solutions that can improve healthcare globally, as well as GE’s broader healthymagination initiative, which focuses on reducing cost, increasing patient access and improving quality in healthcare. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“C8’s technology platform presents great promise for patients to avoid the discomfort of traditional invasive glucose monitoring,” said Mike Harsh, GE Healthcare Chief Technology Officer (CTO). “This investment aligns with our strategy to fund innovations focused on reducing cost, increasing patient access, and improving quality in healthcare.”

C8 MediSensors combined proprietary technology with Raman spectroscopy to commercialize a noninvasive CGM that can improve the lives of diabetics by giving them a continuous view of their glucose levels without the pain, inconvenience, and high cost of invasive glucose monitoring. The company plans to introduce the new noninvasive CGM in the European Community (EC) in 2012, pending CE Marking regulatory approval.

“We are pleased to have GE, through its healthymagination Fund, as new investors in C8 MediSensors,” said Fred Toney, CFO of C8 MediSensors. “GE’s knowledge and breadth of reach throughout the healthcare vertical is a significant advantage to C8 MediSensors as we execute our business plan.”

Raman spectroscopy is a technique used to study vibrational, rotational, and other low-frequency modes in a system. It relies on inelastic scattering of monochromatic light, usually from a laser in the visible, near infrared, or near ultraviolet range. The laser light interacts with molecular vibrations, phonons, or other excitations in the system, resulting in the energy of the laser photons being shifted up or down. The shift in energy provides information about the vibrational modes in the system.

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