Brook provides $1 million bridge loan to Bioscan, Inc.

Brook financing accelerates the release of Bioscan’s new product lines.

BOSTON – Brook Venture Partners announces that it has closed on Bridge Financing that totaled $1.0M in Bioscan, Inc., a Washington, D.C. based producer of detection and measurement products and automated chemistry systems used in clinical nuclear medicine and pre-clinical life science research. “We are very excited about the opportunity that Bioscan presents, and look forward to the company’s success in the two rapidly growing markets within which it competes.

Bioscan was founded in the early 1980’s by Dr. Seth Shulman as a manufacturer of products that detect and measure radiolabeled compounds used for quality control in nuclear medicine and as analytic tools in life science research. These instruments are still produced and sold today, however Shulman sought to jumpstart the company and found leadership in a friend and colleague, Ted Kleinman, who joined the firm in 1999.

“Business began to take off in 1999 when we began distributing a European line of automated chemistry products used in nuclear medicine, and sales quadrupled over a 5 year period,” said Shulman. In 2002, following the acquisition of its principal European supplier by a major medical equipment manufacturer, Shulman led the development of Bioscan’s own line of automated chemistry products, including an automated chemistry system for the production of FDG (used in clinical PET scans), which was introduced at the annual Society for Nuclear Medicine Convention in June, 2005.

The Company has also developed an in vivo molecular imaging system called NanoSpect that incorporates proprietary HiSpect imaging technology. This new technology provides significant advantages over other systems now used to develop new drugs. The first NanoSpect system was also exhibited at the Society for Nuclear Medicine Convention in Toronto this June. The first order for a NanoSpect system was received in June. Leading the marketing and sales effort for the Company is Staf Van Cauter, EVP, who said, “We delivered the first NanoSpect system to a European customer in August, and it was operating within 24 hours of delivery and producing remarkable images.

“These are large, high-dollar systems, and we needed capital to successfully launch them,” said Ted Kleinman, CEO and President, adding, “but not too much capital, so a bridge loan seemed ideal when first suggested.

“Bioscan is the ideal candidate for a bridge financing because it has revenue and an attractive product line that will attract a lead investor for a venture capital round sometime in 2006,” said Andrew Clapp, a Partner at Brook Venture Partners. “The bridge financing allows the company an opportunity to build up sales and its value while providing an attractive return to investors in the Bridge Financing. Brook’s affiliate, Federal Street Capital, Inc. placed the financing with a dozen investors from the northeast.

About Bioscan, Inc.
Bioscan, Inc. produces and sells instruments that detect and measure radiolabeled compounds; automated chemistry products used in the production of radio-imaging agents; and in vivo molecular imaging systems (NanoSpect and HiSpect). These product lines are used in nuclear medicine and life science research. For more information, call 202-338-0974 or visit www.bioscan.com.

About Brook Venture Partners and Brook Co-Investment, LP
Brook Venture Partners provides expansion stage capital through Brook Venture Fund I & II, to information technology and medical technology companies based in the Northeastern United States. Brook Co-Investment, LP provides bridge financing and venture financing to companies that may be slightly earlier in their stage of life. Brook is headquartered outside Boston in Wakefield, Massachusetts and has an office in Albany, NY. For more information, call 781-295-4000 or visit www.brookventure.com.