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August 30, 2019

Tangen opens doors on new Branford digs

PHOTOS | New Haven Biz
By Michael C. Bingham

Gov. Ned Lamont, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and other luminaries were on hand Thursday afternoon when Tangen Biosciences unveiled its new 16,300-square-foot facility at 20 Commerce Drive in Branford.

The company, founded in 2013 in Guilford, relocated this month from a 2,700-square-foot facility at 11 Sycamore Way in Branford that it had occupied since spring 2018. The new Commerce Drive facility will be used to manufacture products for Tangen’s upcoming clinical trials later this year.

Tangen has developed TangenDX, a field-deployable molecular diagnostic platform used to detect pathogens. According to the company, the proprietary device’s speed, ease of use and sensitivity promise to improve patient outcomes while reducing costs.

In June, Tangen announced that it had closed a $9 million Series A equity round led by Connecticut Innovations (CI), with participation of current and new stockholders, including VC23, Axiom and Leading Edge Ventures. The financing proceeds will be used to accelerate TangenDX’s avenue to clinical trials for two infectious-disease tests.

L-r: Gov. Lamont, Tangen CEO Birkmeyer, company co-founder Davidson and Sen. Blumenthal tour Tangen’s new Commerce Drive headquarters Thursday.

The company is currently led by President and CEO Richard Birkmeyer, who joined Tangen last October after a stint as CEO of Delaware-based CD Diagnostics Inc., which had been acquired by Zimmer Biomet in 2017.

Tangen has high hopes for the commercial potential of its DX system, which boasts diagnostic sensitivity up to 50 times greater than its nearest competitor, Birkmeyer said. 

With the device, “We can literally fish a needle out of a haystack,” added Tangen co-founder and Chief Science Officer John Davidson.

Sixty-five percent of the new Commerce Drive space is earmarked for laboratory and manufacturing activity, with the remaining 35 percent office space.

Of the new facility, Davidson said, “When I look around, I see opportunity. We are unbounded by the walls that surround us. There is nothing that will limit us except our imagination.”

Lamont said that with the growth of its life- and biosciences industry, “Connecticut has the wind at our back.” 

Blumenthal said Tangen’s expansion was tangible evidence that “Ingenuity and innovation are Connecticut’s greatest strength.”

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