Freedom Meditech Receives JumpStart ...( CLEVELAND and SAN DIEGO Sept. 16 ...),Health

CLEVELAND and SAN DIEGO, Sept. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- JumpStart Inc., the Northeast Ohio venture development organization that accelerates the growth of innovative early-stage businesses and ideas, today announced the close of an equity investment commitment of $380,000 in Freedom Meditech, Inc., a developer of a proprietary non-invasive ocular glucose measurement device for people with diabetes. The company's device is based, in part, on patented technology developed at the University of Toledo.

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The JumpStart investment is part of an undisclosed total amount of Series A financing that is anticipated to allow the company to complete current pre-clinical studies and create a second generation prototype for use in a pilot human clinical study. The company had previously secured just under $1 million in angel and bridge financing for initial proof of human concept studies and other engineering, legal, patent, regulatory and general operating expenditures.

Freedom Meditech is focused on developing a device similar in form factor to binoculars that would utilize the company's proprietary technology to non-invasively measure glucose levels in the aqueous humor of the eye - an area which has demonstrated a high correlation to glucose levels in blood and throughout the body. The company's patented algorithms and novel product design are intended to correct for the effects of various confounding factors that previously hindered the ability to obtain an accurate glucose measurement in the eye. Based on data generated from preliminary studies, the company has been able to demonstrate that its first generation prototype is highly accurate at even low levels of glucose concentration - a capability that has historically posed a challenge to other technological approaches pursued by various companies
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