Critical Diagnostic Secures Seed Financing
Company Has Test to Quickly Determine Heart Attacks

NEW YORK, NY October 18th, 2004 - Critical Diagnostic, an early stage healthcare company dedicated to the development of an important new category of diagnostic tests that are useful for both early detection of myocardial infarction, commonly referred to as a heart attack, and in crucial patient monitoring during treatment of myocardial infarction and heart failure, announced that it has closed a seed round of financing provided by Carrot Capital Healthcare Ventures. The size of the round was not disclosed.

Cardiovascular disease, despite all the recent medical advances -- such as coronary artery bypass grafting and drug-eluting coronary artery stents -- remains the leading cause of death in America. Emergency physicians, who are challenged to quickly and accurately evaluate heart attack-like symptoms common to a variety of diseases or conditions -- shortness of breath, numbness in the arms and legs, chest pain, dizziness, among others -- need quick, accurate answers. It is expected that with the introduction of Critical Diagnostic’s tests, physicians will be greatly aided in making these life-saving medical decisions within the first critical hour of the onset of symptoms on whether a patient is having a heart attack, the level of severity of the attack and its likely course, thereby improving the overall quality of patient care and contributing to cost-effective medical treatment.

Critical Diagnostic’s novel and advanced technology was created by noted molecular biologist Dr. Richard Lee, Associate Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and uses intellectual property licensed from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston.

Initial funding for Critical Diagnostics was provided by Carrot Capital Healthcare Ventures (CCHV), a seed/early-stage fund that invests in opportunities across the healthcare sectors, including pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, medical devices, instrumentation, healthcare services and medical information systems.

CCHV is part of Carrot Capital, a New York City-based venture capital group. CCHV’s mission is to help healthcare entrepreneurs accelerate their business development, compress critical milestones, build high caliber management teams, and create successful enterprises. The fund has a two-fold investment strategy: to serve as lead investors in seed and early stage healthcare companies, and to license and commercialize healthcare technology from universities and research institutions.