Northern Irish firm which helps speed up diagnoses receives €1.8m

A Northern Irish company which develops technology to support and speed up diagnosis for patients has secured a £1.5 million (€1.8 million) funding injection to support its latest expansion plans and to create 50 jobs.

Cirdan, a Lisburn-based company, which also has operations in Canada and Australia, has received the £1.5 million boost from the UK’s Growth Finance Fund. It is chiefly used by professionals in the field of pathology.

Chief executive Dr Hugh Cormican, who previously co-founded Andor Technology and helped lead the west Belfast-based organisation to a listing on London’s AIM market in 2004, said the company had seen an increase in demand for its informatics and imaging products.

According to Dr Cormican, its key products – “Ultra” a Laboratory Information System (LIS) that supports and streamlines the operations of a clinical laboratory and CoreLite, an X-ray system that helps speed up breast cancer diagnosis – are “gaining increased recognition and traction in a global marketplace”.

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“We have recently signed a new deal with a US distributor for our Corelite product and won a new multimillion-dollar LIS contract supporting laboratories in Singapore and Malaysia, which are exciting new developments for the company.

“The increase in sales and demand for our products has resulted in the requirement for further funding to support the continued R&D spend and working capital needs,” Dr Cormican added.

Because of the company’s “accelerated growth”, it has moved to larger facility, which will enable it to grow to 150 staff.

David McCurley of the Growth Finance Fund, said the funding round would help Cirdan to enhance its R&D capabilities. “Early stage diagnosis of health conditions is a global issue as populations get older. The innovative work undertaken by Cirdan will ensure medical professionals have the most up-to-date tools available to better treat patients,” he added.