Claro Scientific Of St. Pete Wins Regional US Honors

Claro Scientific, a bio-tech company in St. Petersburg, won the “EARLY/Stage Shootout” competition at Southeast BIO’s 13^th Annual Investor Forum held in North Carolina in November.

Southeast BIO (SEBIO), a nonprofit organization, attracted 400 attendees, including investors from all over the U.S. and life sciences companies from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

“SEBIO solicits applications from across the southeast region, 20 companies are invited to the conference,” says Tom McLain, CEO of Claro Scientific. “The finalist selection is based on three criteria: the quality of the presentation, the viability of the company and an assessment of how fundable the opportunity is for venture capitalists. ”

Claro Scientific partnered with USF to develop an innovative diagnostic product platform called SpectraWave. The technology allows patients and medical professionals the ability to get results for certain blood tests within minutes instead of hours. The system can be used in or out of a healthcare setting, and based on recent studies can identify the cause of an infection in less than five minutes.

“We are currently analyzing data from a large blinded clinical study,” says McLain. “In the study we will identify the bacteria causing more than 75 percent of infections in the hospital in less than five minutes without reagents. The results will be available before the end of this year.”

Given the honor Claro Scientific received at the conference, McLain says he hopes to secure funding to accelerate his company’s rate of progress. Obtaining the funds McLain needs to take his company to the next level will help bring SpectraWave to market.

Writer: Kimberly Patterson
Source: Tom McLain, Claro Scientific